Fannie Lou Hamer

Granddaughter of a slave, Fannie Lou Hamer became a champion of civil rights. Threats of losing her home and sharecropping job inspired her to work tirelessly registering African-Americans to vote. She was known for singing Christian hymns on the Freedom Buses to boost morale. In 1963, after recovering from a near fatal beating by Mississippi police, she continued to organize more voter registration drives. She ran for Congress on the Freedom Ballot and received more votes than her opponent. Hamer believed civil rights are human issues, not racial. As she said, "Nobody's free until everybody's free."

Flint, Michigan · United States