Until I Am Free: Fannie Lou Hamer's Enduring Message to America

stemmed from her frustration with the slow pace of change in American politics. African Americans had waited long enough, Hamer reasoned, and the time for politicking and posturing was over. She pointed to a pattern of behavior among activists to compromise for the sake of progress—only to be further delayed in attaining their goals: “[T]hat’s what

describing them as “tool[s] of the Johnson administration.”68 For Hamer, compromise with white public officials, whatever the motivation, left Black people empty-handed. “Fannie Lou Hamer . . . didn’t seem to be interested in how we won the ’64 election or how we kept our dignity,” American politician Walter Mondale later observed, “she just wanted

about her leadership capabilities and political knowledge.43

from Morehouse or Nohouse, we’re still in this bag together.”41 Hamer’s remarks alluded to the class tensions in the movement, which often fueled deep divisions among activists. To some middle-class and elite Black Americans during the 1960s, Hamer would hardly qualify as a leader because of her limited formal education. The reality that her collea

in 1971, while speaking at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund Institute in New York City: “But you see now, baby, whether you have a Ph.D., D.D., or no D, we’re in this bag together. And whether you’re

“We know we have a long fight,” she noted, “because the leaders like the preachers and the teachers, they are failing to stand up today.”37 “I used to have so much respect for teachers and preachers,” she elaborated in the speech. “[But] how, how, how can you actually trust a man and have respect for him [when] he’ll tell you to trust God, but he d

failed to live up to the expectations of their roles. “We want people over us that’s concerned about the people because we are human beings,” she noted.36 As she traveled across the country during the 1960s, she often addressed leaders who lacked courage.

“The only thing we can do, women and men, whether you [are] white or black, is to work together,” Hamer explained.35 She celebrated the power of each individual action and believed that singular acts of courage would accumulate over time to dismantle racist structures.

“I’ve seen too many miseries and too many tricks. They say we should pull ourselves up by the bootstraps but how the hell we gonna do that when the man keeps stealing away the boots?”34