Archives and Special Collections Exhibits
Preview
Creation Date
3-20-2024
Description
Fannie Lou Hamer, a major figure in the Civil Rights Movement, was born into a Montgomery County, Mississippi sharecropping family in 1917. In 1944 Hamer began working on the Marlowe Plantation in Sunflower County where she worked for the next eighteen years until she was fired in 1962 after attempting to register to vote. In 1964 Hamer became one of the founding members of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP), established as an alternative to the state's all-white loyalist Democratic party. She garnered international notice during the 1964 Democratic National Convention, giving impassioned testimony about Southern segregation as she unsuccessfully attempted to force the Party to recognize the MFDP. The archival documents showcased in this display chronicle Hamer’s unyielding lifetime political activism, including correspondence to Mississippi Senator James O. Eastland and to Representative Jamie L. Whitten, among several other significant archival documents dating from Hamer’s lifetime.
This image is part of an online exhibit about Fannie Lou Hamer.
Relational Format
archival material