Salute To Fannie Lou Hamer

Nobody Free Until Everybody Is Free

Fannie Lou Hamer was quite a woman. Fannie Lou Hamer defied her environment, defied the circumstances that she was born into, defied the oppression that she encountered by her oppressors, defied the lack of educational opportunities that were given to her, defied the physical violence that was done to her, and defied all that questioned her determination and desire to make a difference for all black Mississippian’s seeking a better life, a freer life, a life bound with the rights this nation’s Constitution guaranteed people of color. Today, I remember Fannie Lou Hamer on passed away 43 years ago on March 14, 1977.

If you travel to Sunflower County, Mississippi you will see erected memorials to this incredibly powerful black woman. Now you must understand that Sunflower County, Mississippi was also the birth home of the segregationist US Senator James Eastland, for the better part of his life was dedicated to the goal of stepping on and crushing black rights, now only in Mississippi but the entire nation. Yet, if you travel to Sunflower County, Mississippi the name that is remembered isn’t that United States Senator but the name remembered is a former sharecropper who lifted up others in her big boat of justice. Nearly beaten within inches of her life for attempting to secure knowledge about citizenship rights for blacks, Fannie Lou Hamer persevered. Historians have said had Fannie Lou Hamer been a man her life works would’ve rivaled the greatest civil rights leaders of that era. Men like Evers, King, Carmichael, Lewis, Marshall all would’ve had to move over for Fannie Lou Hamer’s place of prominence for her unrivaled passion and strength.

So, today as we look back to a life well lived The Blackman Who Reads Aloud provides you in my voice the words and deeds in a poetic salute to the incomparable Fannie Lou Hamer on March 14, 2020. We must teach our youth about the magnificent works of Fannie Lou Hamer. Fannie Lou Hamer stood down the powers of institutional white supremacy. Fannie Lou Hamer forced a US President to blink in 1964. Fannie Lou Hamer had the absolute respect of Malcolm X. Fannie Lou Hamer was truly a queen of black liberty.