Source: General / Radio One Digital
We partnered with HEB this Women’s History Month to highlight ’31 Days, 31 Women’ and today we are celebrating Fannie Lou Hammer, who fought for Civil Rights as a leader of the movement and member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and also co-founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party in 1964.
Source: Bettmann / Getty
Hammer became involved with efforts to register black voters in the South in 1962, and during her time with SNCC took part in peaceful demonstrations that left her exposed to beatings and violence. As the Vice Chair of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, Hamer opposed her state’s all-white delegation at the Democratic Convention in 1964, where her alternative party captured the national spotlight for the civil-rights movement. Hamer unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 1964, but took part in forming the National Women’s Political Caucus in 1971.
