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
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
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