Free lesson plan: Fannie Lou Hamer and the right to vote (grades 6-12)

What will students learn?

Students will be able to explain how Mississippi kept Black citizens from voting before 1965, describe what Fannie Lou Hamer experienced when she tried to register, and use evidence from primary sources to answer her question to the Credentials Committee.

Learning objectives:

1. Identify the time, place, speaker and audience of a primary source, and explain why they matter.
2. Describe at least three ways Mississippi blocked Black voters in the early 1960s.
3. Corroborate one event in Hamer's testimony with a second source.
4. Write a paragraph-length argument that uses quoted evidence.

What do I need?

You need the testimony transcript and audio, the student handouts described below and about 90 minutes of class time.

• Transcript and audio: American RadioWorks, "Testimony Before the Credentials Committee by Fannie Lou Hamer" (linked in Sources).
• Our explainer pages, for background: the testimony, Winona, 1963, from emancipation to the ballot.
• A map of Mississippi showing Ruleville, Indianola, Winona and Jackson. The county map on our Ruleville page works.
• Optional: a recording of "This Little Light of Mine" from Smithsonian Folkways.

Day 1: Who is speaking, and what happened?

Students meet the speaker and map the events of 1962 and 1963.

1. Warm-up (5 minutes). Ask: What would make you risk your job to do something? List answers on the board.
2. Context (10 minutes). Share five facts: Hamer was a 44-year-old sharecropper and timekeeper; Sunflower County was majority Black, but very few Black residents were registered; the 1890 state constitution allowed registrars to require applicants to interpret a section of the constitution; SNCC came to Ruleville in 1962; the 1964 convention was deciding which Mississippi delegation to seat.
3. Listen and read (15 minutes). Play the testimony while students follow the transcript. Ask them to underline every place, date and person she names.
4. Map it (10 minutes). In pairs, students mark Ruleville, Indianola and Winona on the map and write one sentence for each about what happened there.
5. Exit ticket (5 minutes). "One thing Hamer said that surprised me was... because..."

Day 2: Can we check her account?

Students corroborate the testimony and write an argument.

1. Corroboration stations (20 minutes). Set up three stations, each with a short secondary or primary source: the SNCC Digital Gateway account of the Winona jail; the Mississippi Freedom Trail marker text in Ruleville; the Mississippi Encyclopedia entry on the 1890 constitution. At each station students answer: Does this source agree with Hamer's account? What does it add? Who made it, and when?
2. Discussion (10 minutes). Why did President Johnson call a press conference while she was speaking? Why did television networks replay her testimony that night?
3. Writing (15 minutes). Students answer her closing question in a paragraph: "Hamer asked whether this was the land of the free and the home of the brave. Based on the evidence, how would you answer her in 1964?" Require two pieces of quoted evidence, one from the testimony and one from another source.

How do I assess it?

Use a four-part rubric: claim, evidence, sourcing and clarity, scored 1 to 4 each.

How do I adjust for different grades?

For grades 6 to 8, shorten the listening to the opening and closing sections and give sentence starters; for grades 11 and 12, add the Freedom Democrats' refusal of the two-seat compromise as a debate. Advanced students can read about the 1965 Congressional Challenge and argue whether it succeeded. Extension: interview an older relative or neighbor about voting, using the questions from the 1964 Freedom School Citizenship Curriculum described on our Freedom Schools page.

A note on sensitive content

The testimony describes a beating in plain words, and some students may have experienced violence or racism themselves. Preview the passage, tell students in advance what they will hear, and let anyone step out or read a summary instead. Keep the focus on Hamer's choices and on the system she was describing.