Button - Nobody is Free ~Fannie Lou Hamer

Fannie Lou Hamer (1917-1977) became involved in the civil rights movement in 1962 when she volunteered to register people to vote.  By then 45 years old and a mother, Hamer lost her job and survived a brutal beating as the price of her activism. Despite this, she helped organize the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party to challenge white domination of the Democratic Party.  In l968, in large part as a result of her powerful organizing work, the Convention seated an integrated challenge delegation from Mississippi.   She is buried in her home town of Ruleville, MS, where her tombstone reads, “I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.”