A fearless civil rights activist and master orator, Fannie Lou Hamer gained national prominence during her televised appearance at the 1964 Democratic Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey, as the Represenative for the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP). Formed to challenge the racist, segregated, opressive Mississippi Democratic party, the MFDP's efforts led to the abolishment of the hated Mississippi poll tax and literacy law, and also paved the way for the signing of the 1964 Civil Rights Act by President Lyndon Johnson.

 

      Born Fannie Lou Towsend in rural Montgomery County in 1917, she was the youngest of 20 children born to sharecroppers, Jim and Lou Ella. Fannie went into the cotton fields at the tender age of  six and witnessed the abject poverty of her parents and the African Americans around them.  From this brutal and harsh existance her indominable spirit was born to fight for freedom for all people.  She was nurtured by her strong and loving husband Perry Hamer.

 

      Her quest for freedom ended only with her untimely death in 1977 at the age of 59.