Fannie Lou Hamer: The Life of a Civil Rights Icon

by Earnest N. Bracey

Overview

This book explores the life of one of Mississippi's greatest civil rights activists, Fannie Lou Hamer. Known for her daring, her brinkmanship and her impassioned speech-making, Hamer rose to prominence in the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, an intrepid group which tried to unseat the predominantly white Democrats of Mississippi during the 1964 Democratic National Convention. She is particularly remembered for her speech before the Credentials Committee, seeking to end all-white representation of her home state. Hamer fought her entire life to expand freedom and basic rights to African Americans in the United States.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780786460304
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Publication date:	03/09/2011
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	209
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.42(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Earnest N. Bracey is a retired Army lieutenant colonel and is a professor of political science and African American history at the College of Southern Nevada in Las Vegas.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Preface 1

Introduction 5

1 Birth, Cotton and Childhood 13

2 The Slavery of Sharecropping 19

3 Cry the Beloved Parents 24

4 Death of Her Parents 31

5 Marriage, Eugenics and Adoption 37

6 Apartheid in Mississippi 44

7 The SNCC Comes to Mississippi 53

8 A New Political Activist 61

9 Voting Rights and Freedom Summer 68

10 Enfranchisement and Training 76

11 The Arrest and Beating of Fannie Lou Hamer 82

12 The Rescue and Aftermath 89

13 The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party 95

14 Preparing for the 1964 National Democratic Convention 101

15 The Great Orator 107

16 Continuation of a Political Struggle 114

17 Racism, the White Citizens' Council, and the FBI 121

18 The Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission and a Trip to Africa 128

19 Speaking Out Loud and the 1968 Democratic Convention 134

20 The End of Activism 140

21 Creation of a Freedom Farm 147

22 The Death of Fannie Lou Hamer 153

Conclusions 159

Epilogue 167

Chapter Notes 173

Bibliography 189

Index 197

Editorial Reviews

A new biography of the woman from rural Mississippi who, through the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, came to be a major activist for civil rights.”—Library Journal

From the Publisher

A new biography of the woman from rural Mississippi who, through the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, came to be a major activist for civil rights.

Library Journal