Her life
Fannie Lou Hamer at a glance
The essential facts about Fannie Lou Hamer on one page, with dates, places, organizations, campaigns and honors, for students and quick reference.
In short
Fannie Lou Hamer (1917-1977) was a sharecropper from Ruleville, Mississippi, who became a SNCC field secretary, a founder of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, a candidate for Congress and the state senate, and the founder of the Freedom Farm Cooperative. She is best known for her televised testimony at the 1964 Democratic National Convention.
- Full name
- Fannie Lou Townsend Hamer
- Lifespan
- October 6, 1917 - March 14, 1977
- Occupation
- Sharecropper, plantation timekeeper, organizer
- Town
- Ruleville, Sunflower County, Mississippi
- Best known for
- 1964 Credentials Committee testimony
Fannie Lou Hamer in one paragraph
She was a Delta field worker who, at 44, tried to register to vote, lost her job and home for it, and spent the rest of her life organizing poor and Black Mississippians to vote, run for office and feed themselves. She worked with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) from 1962, survived a jail beating in Winona in 1963, and in 1964 helped lead the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party's challenge at the Democratic National Convention. Her account of what happened to her, given on national television on August 22, 1964, made her one of the best-known voices of the civil rights movement. For the full story, read the biography.
Key dates
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1917 | Born October 6 in Montgomery County, Mississippi |
| c. 1919 | Family moves to a plantation in Sunflower County |
| c. 1929 | Leaves school after the sixth grade |
| 1944-45 | Marries Perry "Pap" Hamer; they live on the W. D. Marlow plantation near Ruleville |
| 1961 | Sterilized without her consent during surgery |
| 1962 | August 31: tries to register in Indianola; evicted from the plantation |
| 1963 | January: passes the registration test; June 9: beaten in the Winona jail |
| 1964 | Co-founds the MFDP; runs for Congress; testifies in Atlantic City; visits Guinea |
| 1965 | MFDP challenge to Mississippi's seats in the U.S. House |
| 1967 | Publishes the short autobiography To Praise Our Bridges |
| 1968 | Delegate with the integrated Loyalist delegation at the Chicago convention |
| 1969 | Founds the Freedom Farm Cooperative |
| 1971 | Co-founds the National Women's Political Caucus; runs for the state senate |
| 1977 | Dies March 14 in Mound Bayou; buried in Ruleville |
| 1993 | Inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame |
| 2012 | Bronze statue dedicated in Ruleville on October 5 |
| 2025 | Presidential Medal of Freedom, awarded January 4 |
Where she lived and worked
Almost all of her life was spent in Sunflower County, in the northwest Mississippi Delta. The family farmed near Ruleville from about 1919. The courthouse where she tried to register is in Indianola, the county seat. The jail where she was beaten is in Winona, about an hour east. She died at the Taborian Hospital in the all-Black town of Mound Bayou, in neighboring Bolivar County. Our Ruleville guide covers the places you can visit.
Organizations she worked with
SNCC hired her as a field secretary, and she held leadership roles in the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. She also worked with the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO), the Southern Christian Leadership Conference's citizenship schools, the National Council of Negro Women, the Child Development Group of Mississippi, which ran Head Start centers, and the National Women's Political Caucus. Our movement section explains each one.
Why this page has the address about.html
The address belonged to an earlier site on this domain. We kept it so that links from schools and libraries still work. Information about who runs this site is on the About us page.
Questions readers ask
What are three facts about Fannie Lou Hamer?
She was the youngest of 20 children of Delta sharecroppers; she was evicted from the plantation where she had worked for 18 years the day she tried to register to vote in 1962; and she co-founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party in 1964.
What political offices did she run for?
The U.S. House of Representatives in 1964 (Democratic primary, Mississippi's Second District, and a later protest ballot with the MFDP) and the Mississippi State Senate in 1971. She did not win either.
What organizations did she help found?
The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (1964), the Freedom Farm Cooperative (1969) and the National Women's Political Caucus (1971).
Sources
- Fannie Lou HamerMississippi Encyclopedia
- Fannie Lou HamerSNCC Digital Gateway
- Fannie Lou Hamer historical markerHistorical Marker Database
- Fannie Lou Hamer, Voting and Civil Rights Pioneer markerHistorical Marker Database
We checked every date and name on this page against the sources above. If you find an error, write to contact@fannielouhamer.info.
Continue in the archive
- Her lifeFull biographyThe full life of Fannie Lou Hamer (1917-1977), from Sunflower County cotton fields to SNCC, the Freedom Democrats, Atlantic City and the Freedom Farm.
- Teach & rememberCalendar of datesAnniversaries from Fannie Lou Hamer's life and the Mississippi movement, month by month, for teachers, libraries and anyone planning a commemoration.
- Her lifeHer familyWhat the record shows about Fannie Lou Hamer's family, from her sharecropping parents Jim and Lou Ella Townsend to her husband Perry Hamer and their daughters.
- Her lifeLegacy and honorsHow Fannie Lou Hamer is remembered, from the words on her headstone to the Voting Rights Act renewal, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and places named for her.