This Day in History: 1917-10-06

Fannie Lou Hamer, freedom fighter, born.
Fannie Lou Hamer (1917-1977) passionate depiction of her own suffering in a racist society helped focus attention on the plight of African-Americans throughout the South. In 1964, working with the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Hamer helped organize the 1964 Freedom Summer African-American voter registration drive in her native Mississippi. At the Democratic National Convention later that year, she was part of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, an integrated group of activists who openly challenged the legality of Mississippi’s all-white, segregated delegation.
Fannie Lou Hamer’s speech at the 1964 DNC
YouTube 8mins.