Fannie Lou Hamer

When Fannie Lou Hamer tried to register to vote in 1962, she was made to take a registration test that was written to keep blacks in Mississippi from voting. For example, one question asked testers to explain “de facto laws.”

“I knowed [sic] as much about a facto law as a horse knows about Christmas Day," Hamer later said.

She failed the test and failed again three months later. But as she was leaving the testing site, Hamer told the registrar: “You'll see me every 30 days ‘till I pass."

On her third attempt, she passed and was eligible to vote later that year. However, when she went to vote, she learned she needed two “poll tax receipts,” something she had never heard of but something she later purchased.

“All of this is on account we want to register, to become first-class citizens,” she said of her  ordeal.

National Women’s Political Caucus

Hamer’s voting struggles led her to become active in the civil rights movements and a leading advocate for equal voting rights for all Americans. She co-founded and was vice-chair of the Freedom Democratic Party and organized the Mississippi Freedom Summer and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. In addition, she co-founded the National Women’s Political Caucus, which was designed to recruit, train and support women who wished to seek election to government office.

Born the last of 20 children in Mount Bayou, Miss., in 1917, Hamer picked cotton with her family, who were sharecroppers, beginning at age six. During the winters, she attended a one-room schoolhouse for sharecroppers’ children and excelled academically.  

Her family faced repeated threats and racism in Mississippi, including the poisoning some of the family’s livestock.

“That white man did it just because we were gettin' somewhere,” Hamer said. “White people never like to see Negroes get a little success.”

In 1962, Hamer began helping thousands of African-Americans in Mississippi become registered voters and assisting disenfranchised residents find meaningful employment. But her efforts were often met with resistance, as she was shot at, threatened and assaulted by white supremacists, as well as jailed by police.

“I guess if I'd had any sense, I'd have been a little scared, but what was the point of being scared?” she said. “The only thing they could do was kill me, and it kinda seemed like they'd been trying to do that a little bit at a time since I could remember.”

Hamer died in 1977 at age 59. Andrew Young, then United States Ambassador to the United Nations, spoke at her funeral and noted her accomplishments. “None of us would be where we are now had she not been there then,” he said.

Hamer was buried in her hometown of Mount Bayou. On her tombstone is her most famous quote: "I am sick and tired of being sick and tired."