Worth Reading: BHM100*: Remembering Fannie Lou Hamer, the Mississippi Plantation Worker Jailed and Beaten for Trying to Vote; She Fought Back as a Civil Rights Activist, Organizer and Powerful Speaker | An Encouraging Development
Worth Reading: BHM100*: Remembering Fannie Lou Hamer, the Mississippi Plantation Worker Jailed and Beaten for Trying to Vote; She Fought Back as a Civil Rights Activist, Organizer and Powerful Speaker | An Encouraging Development Why this story matters: Amid constant bad news, it’s important to highlight examples of progress that rarely make the front page. Quick summary: This story highlights recent developments related to politics, showing how constructive action can lead to meaningful results. [ * This year marks the 100th anniversary since Carter G. Woodson, the “Father of Black History” founded Negro History Week in February 1926. Fifty years after that, President Gerald Ford officially recognized Black History Month. In 1986, Congress passed a law officially designating February as Black History Month.] “Sick and tired of being sick and tired” in the 1960s, Mississippi plantation worker Fannie Lou Hamer was fired, threatened by white supremacists, and beaten in police custody when she tried to vote and register others to do the same. Fannie Lou Hamer (photo via PICRYL Creative Commons) But Hamer would not be silenced. She worked with other activists in her church and volunteers from the Student Nonviolent Coordin…
