Fannie Lou Hamer stood before the Democratic National Convention (DNC). She delivered one of the most searing indictments of American democracy. “Is this America, the land of the free and the home of ...

Her work has previously appeared in USA Today and Washington Life Magazine. When former sharecropper Fannie Lou Hamer first learned that Black people were finally allowed to vote, she knew exactly ...

Almost 60 years ago, Fannie Lou Hamer took the podium at the Democratic National Convention and made a speech that challenged the party for its failure to support Black Americans' right to vote.

Fannie Lou Hamer was born in 1917, the 20th child of Lou Ella and James Lee Townsend, sharecroppers east of the Mississippi Delta. She first joined her family in the cotton fields at the age of six.

Organizer Charlie Cobb recalls being convinced by Fannie Lou Hamer. "Mrs. Hamer backed me up into a corner and said, 'Well, Charlie, I'm glad you came. What's the problem with having more people come?

She is the author of Set the World on Fire: Black Nationalist Women and the Global Struggle for Freedom and Until I Am Free: Fannie Lou Hamer’s Vision of America, which will be published by ...

In 1964, Fannie Lou Hamer stood before the Democratic National Convention (DNC). She delivered one of the most searing indictments of American democracy. “Is this America, the land of the free ...