Biography/History:

Fannie Lou Townsend was born on October 6, 1917, in Montgomery County, Mississippi. She was the last of twenty children born to sharecroppers James Lee and Ella Bramlett Townsend. When Fannie Lou Townsend was two years old, the family moved from Montgomery County to the E. W. Brandon Plantation, in Ruleville, Sunflower County, Mississippi. At six years old, Townsend joined her family in the fields to pick cotton. Since all attention was focused on work in the fields, there was little time for education, and although she enjoyed going to school for short periods during the year, Townsend left school permanently when she was twelve (1929) in order to help the family survive. Ten years later, in 1939, James Lee Townsend died. About this time, his wife, Ella, suffered an eye injury while cutting wood and lost her sight. In 1944, Fannie Lou Townsend married Perry (Pap) Hamer, a sharecropper who came to the Delta from Kilmichael, Montogomery County, Mississippi. After their marriage, the Hamers moved to the W. D. Marlow plantation in Ruleville. There Fannie Lou worked as a farmer, a timekeeper for the plantation farmers, and an insurance saleswoman.

In 1954, the Hamers adopted two young girls that had been placed in their care, Dorothy Jean and Vergie Ree. Dorothy Jean Hamer died of malnutrition in 1967 at the age of 22. Vergie Ree Hamer became one of the first African Americans to integrate the public schools of Sunflower County. As of 2007, Vergie Ree Hamer Faulkner was residing in Ruleville.

In 1962, Fannie Lou Hamer attended a mass meeting in Ruleville, sponsored by the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). The SNCC activists encouraged the audience at the meeting to go to Indianola, Sunflower County, Mississippi to register to vote. Hamer immediately volunteered. She attempted to register but failed the part of the literacy test where she had to interpret sections of the state constitution. Even though she did not become a registered voter, she was fired from her job as plantation timekeeper and evicted from her home when she returned to Ruleville. In 1963, she and other civil rights workers were beaten by policemen and trustee prisoners while being held at the police station in Winona, Montgomery County, Mississippi. The injuries Hamer sustained from this beating had a permanent effect on her health. In 1964, after extensive training by members of SNCC, Hamer returned to Indianola, passed the constitutional section of the literacy test, and became a registered voter.

As a registered voter, Hamer encouraged others to register and vote. Since blacks could not become members of the Democratic Party of Mississippi, a new party, called the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP), was formed. In 1964, Hamer, who had been one of the party’s founders, helped to register 63,000 blacks into the party and assisted in an election to send delegates to Atlantic City, New Jersey, for the 1964 Democratic National Convention. She was one of the delegates selected to challenge the regular delegation to the convention. In her testimony to the credentials committee she delivered a speech that described the conditions of the black populace in Mississippi.

Although the delegation failed in its goal to unseat the regular delegation, Fannie Lou Hamer became a major spokesperson for the Civil Rights Movement. She traveled extensively, speaking of the injustices done to her and other poor black people in Mississippi and raising money for the Civil Rights Movement, particularly the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. In 1965, she sued Sunflower county to get changes in election rules in order to have more blacks registered to vote. Hamer and her allies won the case on appeal in 1966, and new elections were ordered for 1967 in the towns of Morehead and Sunflower. Despite her efforts, the MFDP candidates lost the elections in 1967. Hamer maintained that the election was fraudulent and that voters were intimidated. The party suffered more election losses, but Hamer continued to work on behalf of the MFDP and its supporters throughout the state. She was finally able to see some success when Robert Clark from Holmes County was elected to the Mississippi State Legislature in 1967, the first black elected to the state legislature since Reconstruction.

In the 1970s, Hamer began to rethink her role in MFDP and SNCC. Although she continued to be involved in politics, Hamer turned most of her attention and energy to the Freedom Farm Corporation. Founded in 1969, Freedom Farm began as a farmers’ cooperative that raised vegetables, soybeans, and cotton, and operated a pig bank. It was a project that Hamer hoped would make poor people economically independent. The Corporation prospered for about three years. Friends and associates assisted Hamer in her efforts to make the Freedom Farm Corporation a viable reality. However poor management, natural disasters, and faulty loans caused the Freedom Farm Corporation to fail in 1976.

Despite the project’s failure and her declining health, Fannie Lou Hamer continued her Civil Rights activities in many different spheres. She became a founding member of the National Women’s Political Caucus; unsuccessfully ran for the Mississippi State Senate in 1971; and gave economic aid to citizens in Sunflower County. In early 1977, Hamer was hospitalized for breast cancer and other ailments. Fannie Lou Hamer died of heart failure on March 14, 1977.

Scope and Content:

This collection consists of articles, brochures, correspondence, photographs, legal records, and corporation lists that document the life and work of Fannie Lou Townsend Hamer. The collection is divided into five series: Correspondence and Memorabilia; Writings and Speeches; Organizational Records; Works and Tributes; and Graphic Materials. Series one contains materials related to the life, activities, and legacy of Fannie Lou Hamer. Series two contains copies of her writings and speeches. Series three contains documents of the Freedom Farm Corporation, and letters, brochures, and pamphlets of the Mississippi Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Series four contains copies of magazine and newspaper articles, pamphlets, and brochures that describe the life and work of Fannie Lou Hamer. Series five contains photographs of Hamer, her family and associates, and personalities of social and Civil Rights agencies that were active during this period.

Series Identification:

1. Correspondence and Memorabilia. 1968-1977. 2 folders.

   This series contains photocopies of letters from Mayor Charles Durrough of Ruleville, Mississippi; Bishop Joseph Burnini of the Diocese of Jackson, Hinds County, Mississippi; M. A. Phelps, a delegate of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party; and Annie M. Townsend, Hamer’s sister-in-law. Copies of Hamer’s funeral program and eulogy are also included (f. 2).

   Box 1, folders 1 and 2

2. Writings and Speeches of Fannie Lou Hamer. 1967; 1971; n. d. 1 folder.

   This series contains a copy of Fannie Lou Hamer’s short autobiography, To Praise Our Bridges, written with Julius Lester and Mary Varela. Included also in this series are photocopies of speeches delivered by Hamer. The speeches are: “Is It Too Late?”(1971) and “If the Name of the Game is To Survive, Survive,” (1971).

   Box 1, folder 3

3. Organizational Records. 1970-1976; n.d. 2 folders.

   This series contains copies of documents, lists, and correspondence that describe the origin, membership, and activities of the Freedom Farm Corporation. This series also includes correspondence and documents that record Hamer’s involvement with the state branch of the NAACP.

   Box 1, folders 4 and 5

4. Works and Tributes Concerning Fannie Lou Hamer. 1971-2001; n. d. 9 folders.
   This series contains documents, programs and copies of writings that describe the contributions of Fannie Lou Hamer to the social changes made in Mississippi and the nation. In this series are programs from dramatic performances of Billy Jean Hunter; a musical, Ceremony of Music, Art, and the Movement, performed in 2001 by Hannibal; a proposal by Tracy Sugarman for a film documentary on Hamer’s life; and correspondence related to a Fannie Lou Hamer Memorial Fund. Included as well are a copy of an original writing by L. C. Dorsey, a protégée of Hamer; numerous articles found in national magazines and journals; and photocopies of newsclippings that record her life and death. A photocopy of a tribute by Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated, can be found in this series. Photocopies of award certificates given to Hamer by the Martin Luther King, Jr., Center for Social Change in Atlanta, Georgia, and the city of Highland Park, Michigan, are included as well.
   Box 1, folders 6 and 7
   Box 2, folders 1-7

5. Graphic Materials. 1971; n. d. 4 folders, 1 box.

   This series contains photographs of Fannie Lou Hamer, her friends and acquaintances, labor leaders, farm workers, and volunteers in various stages of the Civil Rights Movement. These photographs include one of Hamer receiving an honorary degree from Tougaloo College, Madison County, Mississippi, and some photographs documenting her participation in organized labor and in the Freedom Farm Corporation. Also included is a poster from Hamer’s campaign for the Mississippi State Senate in 1971.

   Box 2, folders 8-11
   Box 3