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F E IN C D OI YOUR V Image Gallery

The Federal Bureau of Investigation took color images of Fannie Lou Hamer’s battered body after she was beaten in a jail cell at the Montgomery County Jail in Winona, Mississippi (June 1963). (Photo from FBI files).

Fannie Lou Hamer marches during a Freedom Day Rally in Hattiesburg, Mississippi (1963)

1 Fannie Lou Hamer at a meeting of the Mississippi Freedom Labor Union, a union of domestic workers and day laborers, who were striking for better wages during the summer of 1965. (Photo from the Mississippi Department of Fannie Lou Hamer was elected Vice President Archives and History Files). of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party’s 1964 Delegation to the Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City. Here she raises the banner for freedom (August 1964). (Photo Credit: Fred DeVan. The Tougaloo College Civil Rights Collection at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History)

2 Fannie Lou Hamer, Victoria Gray Adams, and Anne Devine, on behalf of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, challenged the five white male congressional representatives sent from their home state to the US House of Representatives. As the congress considered their challenge, Hamer, Adams, and Devine became the first three black women in history to be seated on the floor of the US House of Representatives (1965).

Hamer marched alongside , Martin Luther King, Jr., and during the Meredith Against Fear. She also spoke to the marchers and inspired them with her (June 1966) (Photo Credit: Jim Peppler, Alabama Archives)

3 While traveling north, supporters would often host gatherings in private homes to raise additional funds for Freedom Farm. Here Mrs. Hamer is speaking to members of the Madison, Wisconsin-based Measure for Measure organization in January of 1976. (Photo courtesy of Jean Sweet) Throughout the late 1960s and 1970s, Fannie Lou Hamer often traveled to northern states like Wisconsin and Massachusetts to raise money for her Freedom Farm Cooperative. Here is a poster advertising a speech she gave at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. (Poster: Courtesy of Jean Sweet)

4 In the spring of 1977, Fannie Lou Hamer died at the age of 59 from complications related to breast cancer, hypertension, and diabetes. She left behind three adopted daughters, Vergie Ree, Lenora Aretha, and Jacqueline Denise. (Photo courtesy of Christopher T. Hexter)

Northern supporters of Freedom Farm would lead food, clothing, and supply drives and then transport the materials they collected down to Ruleville. Here’s a group of Measure for Measure activists from Madison, Wisconsin with a full U-Haul (no date) (Photo: Courtesy of Jean Sweet)

5 In 1968, the Loyalist Party from Mississippi challenged the segregated delegation sent to In 1969, Fannie Lou Hamer founded the Freedom the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Farm Cooperative in Sunflower County to help feed the sharecroppers and day laborers across the Illinois. Hamer was a part of the integrated region, who had been displaced by chemical weed Loyalist coalition, which was seated as the killers and large machinery. official delegation sent from Mississippi. She received a standing ovation from convention delegates gathered from across the country.

6 Tougaloo College, a private, historically Black, liberal arts institution in Mississippi, presented Fannie Lou Hamer with an honorary doctorate degree. (Photo: Tougaloo College Civil Rights Collection at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History).

Fannie Lou Hamer spoke at the founding meeting of the National Women’s Political Caucus in Washington, D.C. (1971). She is seated here next to Betty Smith, former vice chairman of GOP in Wisconsin; Dorothy Haener, International Representative Women’s Department United Automobile Workers Union; and Gloria Steinem, member, Democratic National Policy Council.

7 Fannie Lou Hamer’s campaign card for her 1971 bid for Mississippi State Senate. (Card: Courtesy of Jeff Goldstein)

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