.png)
Black History Month "Fannie Lou- Hammer"
- Morgan Banks
- Feb 18, 2019
- 4 min read
AND WERE BACK .. . IN MY BEST TV SHOW HOST VOICE!
Thanks for tuning back into the month we honor black women and men for there influence on the changes made in this world regarding our culture. I am excited to introduce to you Mrs. Hamer for she is a very powerful women. Her words speak for her well beyond the grave and I pray you learn at least one lesson from her life today!
When searching for a women to write about I was reminded of how we as black women are often perceived when we speak. In all of hamers pictures she had the same perception "THE ANGRY BLACK WOMEN" behind every women no matter the race it's a story one told of joy, pain and grace; yet perseverance. This women used her voice to tell her story and she told it with conviction!
Mrs. Hammer was born October 6th 1917. She worked on a plantation for share croppers it was called W.D Marlow's.
Here she learned to read and write which afforded her the best job on the plantation with less work as a timekeeper. While living in Mississippi she was given a common surgery that all black women during that time had to have. She was getting a tumor in her uterus removed the doctors said. Well, while they performed that surgery they also illegally tied her tubes which resulted in her inability to have children. As a common practice in that time she was among the number of many women robbed of the blessing of childbirth. From a white doctor who didn't believe in further populating the black community.
Later on Mrs. Hamer met Mr. Perry Hamer known as Pap. They met on the same plantation. They decided to get married and adopted two children from there plantation that were left by the parents or the parents couldn't take care of them. Later on blessed with two grandchildren.
While working on the Marlow's plantation she heard about a meeting that took place off site about voting. She attended and later exercised that right to vote. This cost her; her job on the plantation with Mr. W.D Marlow. He felt that having a negro women who was voting brought shame to him; so he fired her and took all of her and Pap's living essentials. Despite this Mr. and Mrs. Hammer moved on.
Mrs. Hamer was leaving a citizenship training program in Charleston, South Carolina were she was registering to vote. They stooped at a "white's only" lunch counter rest stop. In act of protest her and other members sat there. Not long after the police arrived and removed them from the cafe. Six people were arrested including Mrs. Hamer.
She talked about the beating she endured in a Mississippi jail at the Democratic National Convention on the credentials committee; when she spoke the speech was interrupted by an "important message" from president Lyndon B. Johnson.
Although he interrupted her speech her story was remarkably captivating and still made it to national television to be seen, she spoke among great names like Dr. Martin Luther King!
When she went to jail the white cops had her brutally beaten by other black brothers. One had to beat her until he was to winded to stop the other right after. The damage done to Hamer’s eyes, legs, and kidneys would affect her for the rest of her life.
That's only a piece of her background; to learn more here's her full story on the Washington post were they describe the way MEN were scared of her voice! https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/10/06/civil-rights-crusader-fannie-lou-hamer-defied-men-and-presidents-who-tried-to-silence-her/?utm_term=.0185b0e9a21d
The point I want to make with Mrs. Hamer story is this "NEVER LOSE YOUR VOICE".
If your voice is speaking, preaching, writing do it and make sure it's loud enough that they hear you in the back! Mrs. Hamer didn't allow the beating those white men gave her in jail to define how she would speak. She never let the old sharecropper stop her from becoming a citizen when she went to vote. She didn't even allow the doctors telling her she couldn't psychically have kids rob her of being a mother.
She not only fought for her life but she fought for her voice to be heard no matter the cost. Many people may look at her and hear story and have pity that she had to endure such pain.
Martin Luther king says "No one really knows why they are alive until they'd die for it"
Fannie used her voice to sing, fight and love. My question to you is what will you use your voice for?
Will you use your voice for God?
Will you use your voice for Change?
Will you use your voice for Peace?
Will you use your voice for Love?
Will you use your voice for Respect?
You have got to find out what your voice will be used for in this world. You cannot let defeat, depression, sadness, lust, or death have your voice. You have too much of story , too much fight and way to much love to share to be bogged down by the weight of the world. The world needs to carry you!
Mrs. Hamers words now live on even after her "I am tired of being sick and tired" - Said during a speech she made shook the room. As a black community we now use it loosely but what she meant was so much deeper then we could imagine given her background!
"When they asked for those to raise their hands who'd go down to the courthouse the next day, I raised mine. Had it high up as I could get it. I guess if I'd had any sense I'd've been a little scared, but what was the point of being scared? The only thing they could do to me was kill me and it seemed like they'd been trying to do that a little bit at a time ever since I could remember."- Fannie Lou Hammer
Comments