#fannielouhamer — Public Fediverse posts

#art #history: is everyone celebrating fannie lou today? you'd better be. she was a phenomenal human being.
#botd #fannieLouHamer #sncc #womensRights #mississippi

RE: https://gamerstavern.online/@brakeoutgaming/116076025750019334

'you can pray until you faint, but unless you get up & try to do something, god is not going to put it in your lap.' - fannie lou hamer
#fannieLouHamer

Fannie Lou Hamer, la mujer que estaba harta de estar harta
Fannie Lou Hamer sobrevivió a una esterilización forzada y a una paliza policial, cofundó el MFDP
https://afrofeminas.com/2026/10/06/fannie-lou-hamer-la-mujer-que-estaba-harta-de-estar-harta/
#Antirracismo #DESTACADO #ReferentesNegros #afrodescendientes #Afrofminas #Afrofeminas #DerechosCiviles #dispora #discriminacin #EsterilizacinForzada #FannieLouHamer #MFDP #Mississippi #MujerNegra #racismo #ReferentesNegras #SNCC #VotoNegro

Mississippi Today: Grant will expand Fannie Lou Hamer Digital Driving Tour. “The Jonathan Logan Family Foundation awarded $25,000 to the ‘Fannie Lou Hamer’s America’ project to support research and the production of 12 new tour stops and multimedia resources, highlighting historic locations connected to Hamer’s grassroots organizing, voting rights work, civic participation, food justice and […]

Fannie Lou Hamer’s Theology of Suffering

Hamer’s activism grew from the Black church, where preachers on liberation drew her into the movement in 1962. Scholars call her a practical theologian, someone who turned prayer meetings into organizing meetings, treating worship and justice as one path. For Hamer, suffering at oppressors’ hands, jailing, beatings, assault, was not incidental to her faith but an expression of it, proof resisting injustice was itself gospel witness. #fannielouhamer

Mississippi Today: Fannie Lou Hamer Digital Driving Tour relaunches. “Funded by the Mississippi Humanities Council and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the digital tour with immersive views is designed to make Hamer’s story more accessible for classrooms, cultural heritage travelers and anyone seeking a deeper understanding of Mississippi’s role in the Civil Rights Movement. Visitors can […]

August 22, 1964 - Fannie Lou Hamer, leader of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP), testified in front of the Credentials Committee at the Democratic National Convention. She was challenging the all-white delegation that the segregated regular Mississippi Democrats had sent to the presidential nominating convention.

Mississippi’s Democratic Party excluded African Americans from participation. The MFDP, on the other hand, sought to create a racially inclusive new party, signing up 60,000 members.

The hearing was televised live and many heard Hamer’s impassioned plea for inclusion of all Democrats from her state. In her testimony she spoke about black Mississippians not only being denied the right to register to vote, but being harassed, beaten, shot at and arrested for trying. Concerned about the political reaction to her statement, President Lyndon Johnson suddenly called an impromptu press conference, thereby interrupting television broadcast of the hearing.

#FannieLouHamer #MississippiFreedomDemocraticParty

Black robes barely covering the white robes underneath!!

Heather Cox Richardson says it!

And, in this short, shouts out Fannie Lou Hamer who fought like hell for the right to vote in the South.

Racist f**ks want to undo all the hard won equality.

https://youtube.com/shorts/TnxmUWpvLlo

#VotingRights #FannieLouHamer #Mississippi #Vote #CivilRights

Fannie Lou Hamer gave us the blueprint. #FannieLouHamer

#8Marzo #DiaInternacionalDeLaMujer💜 "Nadie es libre hasta que todas y todos somos libres" #FannieLouHamer "Por un mundo donde seamos socialmente iguales, humanamente diferentes y totalmente libres" #RosaLuxemburgo Por 1🌍donde no tengan cabida noticias como esta, la libertad de #Ayuso y del #PP ⬇️

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:mfulo2wdaozv3r4qbxuedwey/post/3mgitnd5xxk2y

Fannie Lou Hamer’s life is a powerful example of how to fight injustice. She gave us the blueprint. #FannieLouHamer #BlackWomen’sHistory365

#BlackHistoryMonth #FannieLouHamer

The Civil Rights Movement: Faith, Fire, and the Fight They Never Wanted Us to Win

Why the Civil Rights Movement was Necessary

The Black church was not merely spiritual refuge it was the backbone of the movement. Churches housed meetings, trained organizers, raised funds, and provided sanctuary. Pastors became targets. Churches were bombed. Still, they stood.

Faith did not make activists passive it made them fearless.

“We must obey God rather than men.” — Acts 5:29

Beyond the Famous Names

While figures like Martin Luther King Jr. are rightfully honored, the movement did not survive on speeches alone. It survived because ordinary people did extraordinary things often without protection, pay, or recognition.

One of the most powerful among them was Fannie Lou Hamer.

Fannie Lou Hamer: Too Strong to Silence

Born to sharecroppers in Mississippi, Fannie Lou Hamer knew poverty, forced sterilization, and racial terror firsthand. When she attempted to register to vote in 1962, she was fired, evicted, beaten in jail, and left permanently injured.

And still, she did not stop.

She famously declared:

“I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired.”

Hamer understood that voting was power,

The Civil Rights Movement is often reduced to neat soundbites, black-and-white photos, and a sanitized narrative that makes America feel comfortable. What we are rarely taught is that the movement was dangerous, disruptive, deeply spiritual, and fiercely strategic. It was not designed to make white America feel better it was designed to force change. This was not a moment in history. It was a war for dignity, fought by everyday Black people who understood that silence was death and obedience to injustice was sin.

“Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” — Amos 5:24 (KJV)

Why the Civil Rights Movement Was Necessary

After Reconstruction, Black Americans were forced into a system of legalized oppression known as Jim Crow. Segregation controlled where we lived, learned, worked, ate, and worshipped. Voting rights were stripped through literacy tests, poll taxes, and intimidation. Economic mobility was intentionally blocked.

The law did not protect Black people it policed them. And yet, the lie persists that freedom was eventually “granted.” The truth is freedom was extracted under pressure. Born to sharecroppers in Mississippi, Fannie Lou Hamer knew poverty, forced sterilization, and racial terror firsthand. When she attempted to register to vote in 1962, she was fired, evicted, beaten in jail, and left permanently injured.

And still she did not stop.

She famously declared:

“I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired.”

Hamer understood that voting was power,

The Price of Resistance

Participation in the movement meant:
Jail cells
Lost jobs
Burned homes
Beatings
Assassinations
Economic retaliation

Black businesses were targeted. Families were threatened. Children were jailed.
This was not peaceful coexistence it was spiritual warfare wrapped in social resistance.

“For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” — 2 Timothy 1:7

The Movement Did Not End—It Shifted

The Civil Rights Movement didn’t conclude with legislation. It evolved. Voter suppression simply changed tactics. Economic inequality remained intact. Mass incarceration replaced Jim Crow. Policing became the modern enforcement arm. The question is not what did they do then, the question is what will we do now?

Hidden Figures of the Civil Rights Movement: The Powerhouses History Tried to Erase

History has a habit of celebrating movements while forgetting the people who sustained them. Especially Black women, grassroots leaders and those who refused to be palatable. This article honors the strategists, builders, and disruptors the ones history textbooks gloss over.

Ella Baker: The Architect of Grassroots Power

Ella Baker believed strong leaders didn’t create movements strong communities did. She rejected hierarchy and charisma politics and instead poured into everyday people. She was instrumental in the formation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), empowering young activists to lead boldly and independently. Her philosophy:

“Strong people don’t need strong leaders.”

That idea was dangerous to systems built on control.

Septima Clark: Education as Revolution

Septima Clark understood that literacy was liberation. She developed Citizenship Schools to teach Black adults how to read, write, and pass voter registration tests. She knew the truth:

An educated Black population is a threat to oppression.

She didn’t march loudly but she dismantled systems quietly and effectively.

Diane Nash: Strategy Over Fear

Diane Nash was a key strategist behind the Freedom Rides and sit-ins. When riders were beaten and buses burned, she insisted the movement continue. Her refusal to back down forced federal intervention. Courage wasn’t emotional it was intentional.

The Civil Rights Movement was never about asking to be included it was about refusing to be erased. And that fight is far from over.

I Don’t Even Know What to Say Anymore

These leaders were:

Too independent
Too radical
Too uncompromising
Too Black
Too female
They threatened not only white supremacy but patriarchy and respectability politics within the movement itself.

“The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” — Psalm 118:22

heir Legacy Is Our Responsibility

These activists didn’t fight so we could be comfortable. They fought so we could be conscious. Supporting Black businesses. Protecting voting rights. Telling our own stories. Building economic power. Teaching our children the truth. This is not nostalgia. This is instruction.

“Be not weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” — Galatians 6:9

"When they say, 'Go back to Africa,' I say, 'When you send the Polish back to Poland, the Italians back to Italy, the Irish back to Ireland, and you get on that Mayflower from whence you came and give the Indians their land back.' It's our right to stay here and we stay, and fight for what belongs to us." – #FannieLouHamer #BlackHistory

August 22, 1964 - Fannie Lou Hamer, leader of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP), testified in front of the Credentials Committee at the Democratic National Convention. She was challenging the all-white delegation that the segregated regular Mississippi Democrats had sent to the presidential nominating convention.

Mississippi’s Democratic Party excluded African Americans from participation. The MFDP, on the other hand, sought to create a racially inclusive new party, signing up 60,000 members.

The hearing was televised live and many heard Hamer’s impassioned plea for inclusion of all Democrats from her state. In her testimony she spoke about black Mississippians not only being denied the right to register to vote, but being harassed, beaten, shot at and arrested for trying. Concerned about the political reaction to her statement, President Lyndon Johnson suddenly called an impromptu press conference, thereby interrupting television broadcast of the hearing.

#FannieLouHamer #MississippiFreedomDemocraticParty

"People have got to get together and work together. I'm tired of the kind of oppression that white people have inflicted on us and are still trying to inflict." ― #FannieLouHamer #BlackHistory

Here is a good story for the weekend, or - now! 😅

🎙️ From #Newsroom to Lens: Robin N. Hamilton’s Journey Through Documentary Filmmaking and Social Activism

Hey everyone, Marco here. You know I’m all about storytelling—the way it connects us, challenges perspectives, and shapes the world around us. This time on Audio Signals Podcast - on ITSPmagazine, I had the privilege of sitting down with Robin Hamilton, an #Emmy-winning #journalist turned #filmmaker who has dedicated her craft to shedding light on untold stories and driving meaningful change.

Robin’s journey is fascinating—starting in fast-paced newsrooms and evolving into documentary filmmaking, where she takes the time to explore complex narratives with depth and impact. Her films highlight figures like #FannieLouHamer, whose fight for #votingrights still echoes today, and #OdessaMadre, a woman whose legacy challenges our perceptions of power, crime, and opportunity.

In this episode, we dig into how Robin chooses her subjects, crafts her stories, and balances activism with artistry. We talk about the power of independent filmmaking, the responsibility of shaping narratives that matter, and why stories—when told right—can change the way we see history, society, and ourselves.

If you’re passionate about storytelling, filmmaking, or social impact, this conversation is for you.

Join us as we explore the intersection of journalism, documentaries, and the stories that need to be told.

🎬 Watch the teaser: https://youtu.be/oadPwLd4T9Q

📺 Full video episode: https://youtu.be/wl5wkWQvWlA

🎧 Audio podcast: https://www.audiosignalspodcast.com/

#Documentary #Filmmaking #Storytelling #SocialJustice #Activism #WomenInHistory #Filmmaking #Journalism #InspirationalStories #socialactivism #PodcastEpisode #civilrights #filmaker #journalism #podcast #podcasting Sean Martin

"Is this America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, where we have to sleep with our telephones off the hooks because our lives be threatened daily, because we want to live as decent human beings in America?" — #FannieLouHamer #BlackHistory

America’s Forgotten History of #ForcedSterilization

By Sanjana Manjeshwar on November 4, 2020

"In early September, a nurse working at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (#ICE) detention center in #Georgia came forward with shocking allegations of medical neglect and abuse, claiming that numerous involuntary #hysterectomies (uterus removal surgeries) were performed on detained #ImmigrantWomen. This allegation understandably evoked fury and outrage among the general public, with numerous people denouncing it as a #HumanRights violation and yet another example of the current administration’s cruelty towards women and immigrants. Many people, including prominent liberal politicians and public figures, viewed it as something distinctly un-American and at odds with our country’s values — a common refrain that echoed in response to the allegation was 'This isn’t the America I know.' There were countless comparisons to #NaziGermany and other #totalitarian, human rights-abusing regimes, as well as a pervasive sense that the United States was engaging in a uniquely cruel and unprecedented act. Unfortunately, this is a misleading impression.

"While the allegations against ICE are undoubtedly horrific and must be investigated, they are not at all unprecedented or un-American — in fact, they are very American. The United States has a long, egregious, and largely unknown history of eugenics and forced #sterilization, primarily directed towards #PoorWomen, #DisabledWomen, and #WomenOfColor.

"The American #eugenics movement originated in the late 1800s and has always been undeniably based in #racism and #nativism. The word 'eugenics' originally referred to the biological improvement of human genes, but was used as a pseudoscience to justify discriminatory and destructive acts against supposedly undesirable people, such as extremely restrictive #ImmigrationLaws, #AntiMiscegenationLaws, and forced sterilization. The ultimate goal of the eugenics movement was to 'breed out' undesirable traits in order to create a society with a 'superior' genetic makeup, which essentially meant reducing the population of the #NonWhite and the mentally ill. The eugenics movement was widely accepted in American society well into the 20th century, and was not at all relegated to the fringes of society like one might expect. In fact, most states had federally funded eugenics boards, and state-ordered sterilization was a common occurrence. Sterilization was seen as one of the most effective ways to stem the growth of an 'undesirable' population, since ending a woman’s reproductive capabilities meant that she would no longer be able to contribute to the population.

"The Supreme Court case Buck v. Bell (1927) decided that a Virginia law authorizing the mandatory sterilization of inmates in mental institutions was constitutional. #CarrieBuck, a 'feeble minded woman' whose mental illness had been in her family for the past three generations, was committed to a state mental institution and was set to undergo a sterilization procedure which required a hearing. The Supreme Court found that the Virginia law was valuable and did not violate the Constitution, and would prevent the United States from 'being swamped with incompetence…Three generations of imbeciles is enough.' The Court has never explicitly overturned #BuckVersusBell.

"California’s '#AsexualizationActs' in the 1910s and 1920s led to the sterilization of 20,000 disproportionately #Black and #Mexican people who were deemed to be mentally ill. #Hitler and the #Nazis were reportedly inspired by #California’s laws when formulating their own #genocidal eugenics policies in the 1930s. When discussing the Asexualization Acts of California, Hitler wrote, 'There is today one state in which at least weak beginnings toward a better conception [of citizenship] are noticeable. Of course, it is not our model German Republic, but the #UnitedStates.'

"Throughout the 20th century, nearly 70,0000 people (overwhelmingly working-class women of color) were sterilized in over 30 states. #Black women, #Latina women, and #NativeAmerican women were specifically targeted. From the 1930s to the 1970s, nearly one-third of the women in #PuertoRico, a U.S. territory, were coerced into sterilization when government officials claimed that Puerto Rico’s economy would benefit from a reduced population. Sterilization was so common that it became known as '#LaOperación (The Operation)' among Puerto Ricans.

"Black women were also disproportionately and forcibly sterilized and subjected to reproductive abuse. In #NorthCarolina in the 1960s, Black women made up 65 percent of all sterilizations of women, although they were only 25 percent of the population. One Black woman who was subjected to a forced hysterectomy during this time was #FannieLouHamer, a renowned #CivilRights activist. Hamer described how nonconsensual sterilizations of working-class Black women in the South were so common that they were colloquially known as a '#MississippiAppendectomy'.

"Additionally, many Native American women were sterilized against their will. According to a report by historian Jane Lawrence, the Indian Health Service was accused of sterilizing nearly 25% of #Indigenous women during the 1960s and 1970s. In 1973, the year that Roe v. Wade was decided by the Supreme Court, supposedly ensuring reproductive rights for all American women, the reproductive rights of thousands of Indigenous women were entirely ignored as they were forcibly sterilized.

"Forced sterilization, especially in exchange for a sentence reduction, occurs often in the criminal #LegalSystem today. Government-sanctioned efforts to prevent incarcerated people from reproducing were widespread in the 20th century, and still continue today. In 2017, a judge in #Tennessee offered to reduce the jail sentences of convicted people who appeared before him in court if they
'volunteered' to undergo sterilization. In 2009, a 21-year-old woman in #WestVirginia convicted of #marijuana possession underwent sterilization as part of her probation. In 2018, an #Oklahoma woman convicted of cashing a counterfeit check received a reduced sentence after undergoing sterilization at the suggestion of the judge. According to a report by the Center for Investigative Reporting, almost 150 women considered likely to return to prison were sterilized in California prisons between 2004 and 2003. Although they had to sign 'consent' forms, the procedure, when posed as an incentive for a reduced sentence, generates an ongoing debate about whether or not consent actually exists in these situations. Proponents of the sterilization of incarcerated individuals often cite a lack of 'personal responsibility,' when in reality, many of these individuals face a lack of support and resources. Even if incarceration was somehow the singular determinant of one’s morals and character, sterilization as part of a prison sentence is still a fundamental violation of the right to #ReproductiveAutonomy — something judges and prison officials choose to ignore."

Read more:
https://bpr.studentorg.berkeley.edu/2020/11/04/americas-forgotten-history-of-forced-sterilization/
#USPol #reproductiverights #Fascism #BodilyAutomony #USHistory #WhiteNationalism #Genocide

See our latest post on the Mississippi Democratic Party and its protest at the US Capitol in 1965. #MFDP #CivilRights #FannieLouHamer

https://zurl.co/NCn3k

See our latest post on the Mississippi Democratic Party and its protest at the US Capitol in 1965. #MFDP #CivilRights #FannieLouHamer

https://zurl.co/NCn3k

See our latest post on the Mississippi Democratic Party and its protest at the US Capitol in 1965. #MFDP #CivilRights #FannieLouHamer

https://zurl.co/NCn3k

"One day, I know the struggle will change. There's got to be a change – not only for Mississippi, not only for the people in the United States, but people all over the world." — #FannieLouHamer #BlackHistory

Fannie Lou Hamer was an unrelenting fighter for Justice. Her work in Civil Rught, Women’s and Voting rights inspires contemporary generations of Freedom Fighters: https://historianspeaks.org/f/fannie-lou-hamer-fearless-freedom-fighter. #FannieLouHamer

See our lastest blog celebrating the birthday of Fannie Lou Hamer. #FannieLouHamer #Mississippi #MFDP #SickandTired

https://zurl.co/u13b

from #Jacobin
The 2024 Democratic Convention: More 1964 Than 1968
By #LizaFeatherstone

https://jacobin.com/2024/08/2024-dnc-1964-mfdp-uncommitted

The media was obsessed with comparing this year’s #DNC to #Chicago 1968. But given the party’s rejection of the #Uncommitted movement, Atlantic City 1964, when Democrats refused to seat #FannieLouHamer and the #MississippiFreedomDemocraticParty, is more apt.

#NotAnotherBomb
#StopArmingIsrael
#RejectAIPAC #BDS
#CeasefireNow #EndUSAidToIsrael #DivestFromIsrael
#StopGazaGenocide
#RestoreFundsToUNRWA
#SolidarityWithPalestine is #NotAntisemitism
#EqualRightsForAllFromTheRiverToTheSea is #NotAntisemitic
#JewHatredHurtsPalestine
#Gaza #Israel #Palestine #politics
#USA #US #USPolitics #USElection #KamalaHarris #DemocraticParty #Biden
#media #news #press @palestine @israel

"The Freedom Democrats helped lead the way to President Barack Obama's election in 2008 and now to Harris' nomination. To me, it's all connected. It's like a relay race. One baton moving to the next." #DemConvention #FannieLouHamer #BlackHistoryIsUSHistory
https://apnews.com/article/fannie-lou-hamer-democratic-convention-atlantic-city-79b54880412b373aa12fc832c9b2bb07

"Harris is accepting the Democrats’ presidential nomination Thursday, exactly 60 years after another Black woman mesmerized the nation with a televised speech that challenged the seating of Mississippi’s all-white delegation to the 1964 Democratic National Convention.

"She described how she was fired from her plantation job in retaliation for trying to register to vote and brutalized in jail for encouraging other Black people"
https://apnews.com/article/fannie-lou-hamer-democratic-convention-atlantic-city-79b54880412b373aa12fc832c9b2bb07
—
#FannieLouHamer #ushistory #CivilRights

#KamalaHarris and #FannieLouHamer: A #Powerful #Moment, 60 Years Later.

This #historic #moment deserves a #remembrance of the #legendary #legacy set forward by the #voting and #womensrights #activist. Harris stands on her shoulders.

— #RoleModels #BlackMastodon (17/19)

https://msmagazine.com/2024/07/22/kamala-harris-fannie-lou-hamer-dnc-black-women/

October 5, 2012
The National Fannie Lou Hamer Memorial Statue was dedicated and unveiled in Rulesville, Mississippi.
#FannieLouHamer

“Nobody’s free until everybody's free.”

— Fannie Lou Hamer

#bumpersticker #paraphrase
#FannieLouHamer

Three Giants
#fannielouhamer #victoriagray #anniedevine #civilrights #blackhistory #mississippidemocraticfreedomparty

Fannie Lou Hamer. 🖤🙏🏿

#BlackMastodon #BlackFriday #Mastodon #FannieLouHamer

#UnitaBlackwell & #FannieLouHamer testify before the U.S. Senate 1967