Ms. Hamer's Work

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee SNCC

SNCC Timeline

Hamer was attracted to SNCC because the organization demonstrated a very fervent commitment to "local autonomy [as] the basis of sustained militancy." The organization also had a strong belief that the movement would progress fastest if it was served by building pockets of community leadership. Hamer had not known that a Negro could register to vote. The SNCC members were commissioned to organize some people to go to the county courthouse in Indianola and secure the voting rights. Eighteen people raised their hands and showed interest in truncating the longwithstanding practice of excluding blacks from southern politics. Hamer was one of the first to raise her hand.

Hamer did not realize the grave dangers that were implicated in the task of trying to obtain a basic democratic right. It wasn't until years after she had almost seen death a number of times that she realized how dangerous her feats were: "I guess if I'd any sense I'da been a little scared. The only thing they could do to me was kill me and it seemed like they'd been trying to do that a little bit at a time ever since I could remember."

The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party

The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party was founded in 1964 and Fannie Lou Hamer was among the original three hundred members. Through MFDP Hamer continued to travel around the country and speak about the political and social conditions in Mississippi and the origins of these conditions. MFDP rose to international fame when they challenged the all-white Democratic Convention in Atlanta to be more inclusive. The MFDP demanded to be seated at the Convention and Hamer spoke famously of her own struggles for enfranchisement and representation. The delegates from Mississippi were offered a two seat compromise. After much deliberation and debate, the compromise was regected and declared "unacceptable" by Hamer.

The Mississippi Freedom Labor Union

Hamer supported many different progressive economic projects. One of the main projects she supported actively was the Mississippi Freedom Labor Union (MFLU, which was a union of black domestic workers and day laborers. The MFLU placed great emphasis on home, land and business ownership in an effort to thwart economic exploitation in Mississippi.

Hamer made a pinnacle contribution to the MFLU. She was one of the Union's most outspoken advocates of economic liberation. She endorsed the union in her speeches for the MFDP and she often helped to fund raise for the union. She was soon adopted as a leader for the Union because she was a model for the transformative results of activism, given her sharecropping background.

The Freedom Farm

In 1969 Hamer laid the foundation for The Freedom Farm project to develop poor communities in the south and make them economically self-sufficient. Through initiatives that encompassed land ownership, mass food production, education, and black entrepreneurship the Freedom Farm changed poor Mississippi for the better. Hamer envisioned the program to be one that would provide freedom "from hunger, poverty, and homes that did not protect needy families from the cold winds of 'Old Man Winter.'" The guiding platform of the Freedom Farm consisted of long term self-empowerment. Hamer realized that without food and money the people in Mississippi would not be able to gain the type of freedom she envisioned. The Cooperation was a self-help institution.