Fannie Lou Hamer

Fannie Lou Hamer: Civil Rights Activist

Hamer lifts banner at the 1964 National Democratic Convention. Photograph by Fred DeVan. Photograph courtesy The Tougaloo College Civil Rights Collection at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History

Fannie Lou Hamer, seated at left, at a meeting of the Mississippi Freedom Labor Union, a union of black domestic workers and day laborers. Photograph courtesy The Tougaloo College Civil Rights Collection at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History

Hamer, in coat and scarf, helped establish Freedom Farm Cooperative in 1969 with the goal to provide food and some economic independence to local people. Photograph courtesy The Tougaloo College Civil Rights Collection at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History

Tougaloo College presents Hamer with a Doctor of Humanities honorary degree in 1969. Photograph courtesy The Tougaloo College Civil Rights Collection at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History

Hamer speaks on Tougaloo College campus, June 1971. Photograph courtesy The Tougaloo College Civil Rights Collection at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History

Election poster for Hamer’s 1971 run for the Mississippi Senate. Courtesy The Tougaloo College Civil Rights Collection at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History

 

https://mshistorynow.mdah.ms.gov/issue/fannie-lou-hamer-civil-rights-activist

 

Fannie Lou Hamer and future Congressman John Lewis came to Cleveland to honor Civil Rights martyr Rev. Bruce Klunder, who was killed during a C.O.R.E. protest at the construction site of Stephen E. Howe Elementary School in 1965.