Movement
The movement
How the Mississippi freedom movement worked, from SNCC field organizing and Freedom Summer to the Freedom Democrats, the House challenge and 1968.
.jpg){kind=link}
Fannie Lou Hamer did her work inside organizations: the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the Council of Federated Organizations, the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and later the National Women's Political Caucus. These pages explain what those groups were, what they tried to do in Mississippi, and where she fit.
They also cover the wider context people ask us about, including Juneteenth, the word "Uhuru," the SNCC trip to Guinea, Black veterans in the Mississippi movement and the presidents who have spoken about her.
Pages about the movement
- MovementSNCCWhat the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee was, how its organizers came to Mississippi and the Delta, and how Fannie Lou Hamer became a SNCC field secretary.
- MovementFreedom Democratic PartyHow the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party formed in 1964, challenged the all-white state delegation in Atlantic City and refused the two-seat compromise.
- MovementThe 1965 House challengeHow the Freedom Democrats challenged Mississippi's five congressmen in 1965, why Hamer, Annie Devine and Victoria Gray were named, and what the evidence showed.
- MovementThe 1968 conventionHow an integrated Mississippi delegation, including Fannie Lou Hamer, was seated at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago in place of the regulars.
- MovementFreedom Summer 1964What Freedom Summer was, who the mostly white student volunteers were, how they trained, what they faced in Mississippi and how Ruleville and Hamer took part.
- MovementFreedom SchoolsHow the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Schools began, what their citizenship and Black history curriculum taught, and what students did at the Meridian convention.
- MovementThe Guinea trip, 1964Why a SNCC delegation including Fannie Lou Hamer traveled to newly independent Guinea in September 1964, who went, what they saw and what it changed.
- MovementThe meaning of UhuruThe Swahili word uhuru means freedom. How it became a rallying cry of African independence and how its language reached the American civil rights movement.
- MovementFreedom songsWhy singing mattered in the Mississippi movement, the hymns and freedom songs Fannie Lou Hamer led, and where to hear recordings from the 1960s.
- MovementVeterans and the movementHow Black World War II and Korean War veterans such as Medgar Evers, Amzie Moore, Aaron Henry and Clyde Kennard helped start the Mississippi movement Hamer joined.
- MovementJuneteenthWhat Juneteenth commemorates, how General Order No. 3 reached Galveston on June 19, 1865, and how the day became a federal holiday in 2021.
- MovementEmancipation to the ballotHow Black Mississippians voted after the Civil War, how the 1890 constitution took the vote away, and why Hamer still faced a literacy test in 1962.
- MovementPresidents and HamerWhat U.S. presidents have said and done about Fannie Lou Hamer, from Johnson's 1964 press conference to Obama's Selma speech and Biden's 2025 Medal of Freedom.
- MovementMoore, Moses and SNCCHow Amzie Moore's 1960 meeting with Bob Moses turned SNCC toward voter registration in rural Mississippi and led organizers to Ruleville and Hamer in 1962.
- MovementDevine and CantonHow the Canton movement in Madison County grew in 1963 and 1964 under CORE and local leaders like Annie Devine, from first meetings to Freedom Day.
- MovementGray's 1964 Senate raceWhy Victoria Gray ran for the U.S. Senate against John Stennis in 1964 as a Freedom Democrat, how the campaign worked and what it showed about Mississippi voting.
- MovementGray Adams as teacherHow Victoria Gray Adams used SCLC's citizenship school model in Hattiesburg to teach adults to read, register and organize, and why that teaching model mattered.
- MovementKennard's exonerationHow Sovereignty Commission files, journalists and students helped clear Clyde Kennard's name in 2006, and how the University of Southern Mississippi honors him.
- MovementWomen's Political CaucusHow Fannie Lou Hamer joined Shirley Chisholm, Bella Abzug, Gloria Steinem and others to found the National Women's Political Caucus in Washington in July 1971.
- MovementMound Bayou and the RCNLHow the all-Black town of Mound Bayou and the Regional Council of Negro Leadership, founded in 1951, prepared the Delta for the movement Fannie Lou Hamer joined.
Continue in the archive
- MovementSNCCWhat the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee was, how its organizers came to Mississippi and the Delta, and how Fannie Lou Hamer became a SNCC field secretary.
- MovementFreedom Democratic PartyHow the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party formed in 1964, challenged the all-white state delegation in Atlantic City and refused the two-seat compromise.
- MovementThe 1965 House challengeHow the Freedom Democrats challenged Mississippi's five congressmen in 1965, why Hamer, Annie Devine and Victoria Gray were named, and what the evidence showed.
- MovementThe 1968 conventionHow an integrated Mississippi delegation, including Fannie Lou Hamer, was seated at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago in place of the regulars.