Explorations in Black Leadership

Co-Directed by Phyllis Leffler & Julian Bond

Hamer, Fannie Lou (1917–1977)

A civil rights activist from Montgomery County, Mississippi, Hamer became famous for saying she was “sick and tired of being sick and tired.” The daughter of sharecroppers, her family struggled to survive. In the 1950s, she attended a protest meeting and subsequently became very active in registering people to vote. She was a key organizer of the Mississippi Freedom Summer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and became the vice-chair of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.