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.

It wasn’t called voter suppression back then, but civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer knew exactly how white authorities in Mississippi felt about Black people voting in the 1960s.

CHICAGO — On Aug. 22, 1964, Mississippi civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer delivered an iconic speech at the Democratic National Convention, taking the party to task for its failure to ...

Hosted annually by the Department of Africana Studies at the University of Delaware, the Fannie Lou Hamer Lecture is a signature event held each February in celebration of Black History Month. Named ...

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 ...

Fannie Lou Hamer's fight for voting rights in 1964 remains relevant today as states continue to enact voter suppression tactics. While Black political representation has increased, many elected ...

As strong-willed civil rights and voting rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer, Butler knows she has audiences in the palm of her hand. And rightfully so! Butler easily glides between impassioned ...