Keeping her memory accurate: a guide for event organizers

How do I check a quotation?

Find the quotation in a transcript or recording before you print it, and note where and when she said it. The best single source is The Speeches of Fannie Lou Hamer: To Tell It Like It Is (2011). Her 1964 testimony is available as a transcript and audio from American RadioWorks. A good test: if you cannot name the speech, the year and the audience, do not use the quotation.

Be careful with short, quotable lines that circulate online. Some are paraphrases, some belong to other people, and some were invented. Her line about being sick and tired of being sick and tired is genuine and is carved on her headstone. Her statement that nobody is free until everybody is free comes from a 1971 speech.

How do I get the facts right?

Use dates and names from the SNCC Digital Gateway, the Mississippi Encyclopedia, or our at-a-glance page, and avoid copying from social media posts. Common mistakes include giving the wrong year for her registration attempt (it was 1962), placing the Winona beating in the wrong year (1963) and saying she was seated at the 1964 convention (she was not; she was seated in 1968).

How should I use photographs?

Use only images you have the right to use, and credit them on the display or slide. Many famous photographs of Hamer are under copyright. The Library of Congress and the Mississippi Department of Archives and History publish rights statements for each item. All photographs on this site are licensed and credited on our photo credits page, and we do not use portraits of people.

How do I describe who is behind the event?

Say who is organizing it, and do not suggest that Hamer's family, an estate or an institution endorses you unless they have agreed. If you want family members or movement veterans to take part, contact them directly and respectfully, and accept a no.

What if the event is in Ruleville?

Contact local churches, the city and community groups well in advance, and remember that the memorial garden is a grave site. Keep events at the garden quiet and short, leave the plantings and statue untouched, and pick up afterward. See our Ruleville guide and commemoration page.