Ruleville and Sunflower County: Fannie Lou Hamer's home

What kind of town is Ruleville?

Ruleville is a farm town of about 2,600 people in the flat cotton and soybean country of the northern Mississippi Delta. It grew up around a stop on the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad and was laid out in 1898 by J. W. Rule, whose name it carries. For most of the twentieth century it was a cotton shipping point surrounded by large plantations worked by Black sharecroppers and day laborers. The former Illinois Central depot, built in 1930, still stands and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Sunflower County, with Indianola as its seat, was a majority-Black county where very few Black residents could vote before 1965. It was also home to Senator James O. Eastland, whose plantation was near Doddsville, and to the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, about fifteen miles north of Ruleville.

Why is Ruleville important in civil rights history?

In the summer of 1962 SNCC chose Sunflower County for a voter registration project, and Ruleville became its base. Charles McLaurin, Charlie Cobb and Landy McNair began work there that August, and the mass meetings at William Chapel brought out Fannie Lou Hamer and others who rode to the Indianola courthouse on August 31. Reprisals followed: Hamer lost her home, and night riders fired into Black homes in town that September. In 1964 Ruleville had a Freedom School, and Freedom Summer volunteers lived with local families, including the Hamers.

What Hamer sites can you visit?

The main sites are outdoors and within a short drive or walk of each other.

The church is an active congregation, so visit the marker outside and ask before entering during services.

What else is nearby?

Cleveland, ten miles west, has the Amzie Moore House museum and Delta State University; Indianola has the B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center; Mound Bayou, where Hamer died, is a historic all-Black town about twenty-five miles northwest. The Emmett Till Interpretive Center in Sumner is within an hour's drive. Our museums page lists more. Visit Cleveland MS publishes a civil rights driving route that includes Ruleville.

Practical tips for visitors

Plan for heat, distance and few services. Summers are hot and humid, so morning visits are easiest. Ruleville has gas stations and small restaurants, while most hotels are in Cleveland or Indianola. Bring water, check opening times for indoor museums before you go, and remember that you are visiting a living town. People in Ruleville often know the history well, and many will talk about it if you ask politely.