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Fannie Lou Hamer

Writer's picture: Penny ColmanPenny Colman

A letter arrived today from Debra Sawyer with photographs of landmarks to the fierce fighter for civil rights, in particular the right to vote–Fannie Lou Hamer, the subject of my book Fannie Lou Hamer and the Fight for the Vote, a 1993 biography for young readers. I met Debra last year in Rochester, New York, when I spoke to a group who was on a Women’s History Bus Tour.  During my talk I described going to the Schomburg Center for Black Culture in New York City to listen to recordings of Hamer’s powerful speeches at civil rights rallies and her electrifying testimony before the National Democratic Party Credentials Committee in 1964, which is now on YouTube. When Debra, who lives in Mississippi, said she had visited Hamer’s grave and a Memorial Garden that was rededicated in 2008, I excitedly asked if she would send me photographs. Here they are. (In writing this post, I discovered a statue of Fannie Lou Hamer was dedicated in Oct. 2012,  so I clearly need to get myself to Ruleville.)  

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