Her life
Her life
Every page about Fannie Lou Hamer's own life, from her Delta childhood and family to Winona, Atlantic City, the Freedom Farm and her last years.
Fannie Lou Hamer lived almost all of her 59 years in Sunflower County, Mississippi. The pages below follow that life in order where they can: the family she was born into, the plantation years, the summer of 1962 when she tried to register, the beating in Winona, the speech that made her known across the country, and the farm and political work that filled her last decade.
If you have time for only one page, read the full biography. If you want the essentials on a single screen, use Fannie Lou Hamer at a glance.
Pages about her life
- 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.
- Her lifeAt a glanceThe essential facts about Fannie Lou Hamer on one page, with dates, places, organizations, campaigns and honors, for students and quick reference.
- Her lifeWinona, 1963The June 9, 1963 arrest of Fannie Lou Hamer and fellow activists at the Winona bus station, the beating in the jail, the federal trial and the markers there now.
- Her lifeThe 1964 testimonyWhat Fannie Lou Hamer told the Democratic Credentials Committee in Atlantic City on August 22, 1964, why President Johnson interrupted, and what followed.
- 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 lifeFreedom Farm CooperativeHow Fannie Lou Hamer's Freedom Farm Cooperative and pig bank tried to feed and house poor families in Sunflower County from 1969 into the mid-1970s.
- Her life1971 state senate raceWhy Fannie Lou Hamer ran for the Mississippi State Senate in 1971, what her platform proposed on welfare, voting, schools and taxes, and what the race showed.
- 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.
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.
- Her lifeAt a glanceThe essential facts about Fannie Lou Hamer on one page, with dates, places, organizations, campaigns and honors, for students and quick reference.
- Her lifeWinona, 1963The June 9, 1963 arrest of Fannie Lou Hamer and fellow activists at the Winona bus station, the beating in the jail, the federal trial and the markers there now.
- Her lifeThe 1964 testimonyWhat Fannie Lou Hamer told the Democratic Credentials Committee in Atlantic City on August 22, 1964, why President Johnson interrupted, and what followed.