Fannie Lou Hamer's Contribution To The Civil Rights Movement

Changjiang Liu
5044 3064 63
AMST 252
ESSAY 1
Professor: Francille Rusan Wilson
TA: Maytha Alhassen

After Fannie Lou Hamer met with members of Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) when she was forty-four, her life experienced a drastic change. (Lee 23). In this organization, Hamer helped black people to register to vote. In order to participate in the state Democratic Party, Fannie Lou Hamer helped start Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) and was elected Vice-Chair of this party. By pursuing rights for black people, Hamer devoted her whole life, and she is remembered by the world. As an American voting rights activist, Fannie Lou Hamer is remarkable, and her goal, method, and obstacles in Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee and Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party are often compared with some leaders in other organizations like Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
The original goal of SNCC is protesting lunch counter segregation, and then the organization began to focus on desegregation and voting registration. The goal of Fannie Lou Hamer in SNCC is related to voting, as Chana Kai Lee narrated. In August 31, 1962, Hamer travel to Indianola court house with 17 volunteers (30). Hamer’s goal in MFDP is also related to voting. In one of her speech that represents MFDP, she said that “We didn’t come all this way for no two seats, because all of us is tired (Mills 182).” In order to find more seats for black people in US Democratic Party, Hamer devotes herself in it. SCLC, led by Martin Luther King, focuses more on Jim Crow laws. This association often exposures unfair treatment that black people suffered. Seen as one of the largest and oldest civil rights organization of this nation, NAACP is much bigger than SNCC, and it is even older than SCLC. Because it is founded earlier, the members of NAACP are cautious and traditional. NAACP is also focus on Jim Crow laws. The goal of Fannie Lou Hamer in SNCC and MFDP is somewhat concentrate on voting rights of black people, while SCLC and NAACP, as bigger organizations, focus on more issues that related to African Americans.
Strategies of Fannie Lou Hamer are very practical.
She always took part in activities herself, even after the lynching in Winona. As Lee said, Hamer made several attempts to enter national politics after Winona (Lee 61). She never afraid of injuries from dissenters and always insist on her belief of seeking more rights for black people. Hamer also liked to give speeches. She gave a famous speech to the committee of the Democratic National Convention in August 22, 1964. Her words “All my life I've been sick and tired. Now I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired” also became her most famous quote (Mills 93). Like Hamer, leaders of other organizations liked to give presentations as well. Martin Luther King’s famous speech in March on Washington is known by the world. One leader of NAACP, W.E.B Du Bois also gave some well known speeches such as Niagara Movement speech in 1905. Public presentation is a commonly accepted way for most leaders of civil rights organizations. By giving presentations, civil rights leaders encouraged listeners to make change. But for Fannie Lou Hamer, she engaged in more practical activities besides presentations and tried to make change herself. In other words, she tried to be a role model more than an orator. When working in SNCC and MFDP, Fannie Lou Hamer didn’t have the exactly same goal and strategies compared to other organizations. Additionally, the obstacles they face were also quite
different.
Although SCLC and SNCC all insisted on non-violent protests, their challenges were different because these two organizations are based on different classes. The leader of SCLC, Martin Luther King was an established priest, which can be considered as a middle class. With his own power, money and social-networking, it is quite easy for him to achieve his goals. However, SNCC was an organization originally found by college students. With the help of Fannie Lou Hamer, it is still not as powerful as SCLC. The first several attempts of Voting Registration by Fannie Lou Hamer were failed, so how to protest effectively became a problem of Hamer and SNCC. When Hamer and MFDP fought for deserved seats in Democratic Party, obstacles they face are objections from racists that refused to let them take part in the convention. Democratic Party tried offering MFDP two non-voting seats as a compromise (Lee 89). A common obstacle faced by Fannie Lou Hamer and other leaders like Martin Luther King is threats to their health. According to Hakim Adi in his book Pan-African History: Political Figures from Africa and the Diaspora since 1787, Martin Luther King was stabbed in New York while autographing copies of his first book Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story (106). Fannie Lou Hamer also suffered a lot in her career. In the spring of 1963, she was arrested by police in Winona beaten heavily in police department (Lee 49). This accident almost killed her. It is reasonable that if African American leaders make racists feel dangerous and threatening, racists may try to damage those African American leaders’ lives.
Southern Civil Rights organizations are mainly shaped by class.
Established in 1957, SCLC has a goal of redeeming “the soul of America” through nonviolent resistance (King 144). Having a socially respected middle class leader, Martin Luther King, SCLC accomplished lots of goal with powerful social-networking. Compared to SNCC, SCLC could be seen as an association that was made up of non-lower class people. SNCC was established by college students, who didn’t have social-networking as powerful as Martin Luther King. The problem of inequality in gender is also a problem in these organizations. Male members have predominant positions. This phenomenon is especially obvious in SNCC. When reciting female members in SNCC, Sabina Peck said that many women’s work was considered as of inferior importance to that of men. Additionally, Women’s efforts were largely dismissed by those outside of Civil-Rights organizations as unimportant and ineffective (Peck
31).
As a well-known female African American activist, Fannie Lou Hamer could be considered as a role model for activists today. She didn’t afraid of physical injuries. After she was beaten heavily in Winona, she still devoted herself in finding more rights for black people. Her unswerving belief should be learned by current activists. Another merit of Hamer was that she adopted appropriate and nonviolent methods to pursuing her goal. Activities of Rodney King and those who participated in the riot in 1992 reflect their belief that violence is always an effective way to accomplish their goals. Apparently, those who believed in violence didn’t get what they want while Fannie Lou Hamer, who believed in non-violent methods, accomplished her goal in an effective way.

Citation List
1, Adi, Hakim and Sherwood, Marika. Pan-African History: Political Figures from Africa and the Diaspora since 1787. London: Routledge, 2003. Print.
2, King, Martin Luther, Jr. ‘‘Beyond Vietnam,’’ in A Call to Conscience. Carson and Shepard, eds., 2001. Print.
3, Lee, Chana Kai. For freedom's sake. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1999. Print.
4, Mills, Kay. This Little Light of Mine: The Life of Fannie Lou Hamer. New York: Plume, 1994. Print.
5, Peck, Sabina. ‘The only position for Women in SNCC is Prone’. University of New South Wales, 2012. Print.