The Speeches of Fannie Lou Hamer

Compiled by Maegan Parker Brooks and Davis W. Houck

Fannie Lou Hamer, a Mississippi sharecropper-turned-civil rights activist, is well known for the impassioned testimony she delivered at the 1964 Democratic National Convention.

Far fewer people aer familiar with the speeches she delivered at the 1968 and 1972 conventions, to say nothing of addresses she gave closer to home, or with Malcolm X in Harlem, or even at the founding of the National Women’s Political Caucus.

Until now, dozens of Hamer’s speeches have been buried in archival collections and in the basements of movement veterans. After years of combing library archives, government documents, and private collections across the country, Maegan Parker Brooks and Davis W. Houck selected 21 of Hamer’s most important speeches and testimonies for their book, The Speeches of Fannie Lou Hamer: To Tell It Like It is.

As the first volume to exclusively showcase Hamer’s talents as an orator, the book includes speeches from the better part of her 15-year activist career delivered in response to occasions as distinct as a Vietnam War Moratorium Rally in Berkeley, California, and a summons to testify in a Mississippi courtroom. Brooks and Houck also include a full-length oral history interview Hamer granted at her home in 1972 and 1973.

Through their extensive research and subsequent book, The Speeches of Fannie Lou Hamer, Brooks and Houck reveal that there is still much to learn about from the valiant Black freedom movement activist.

“The wrongs and the sickness of this country have been swept under the rug. But I’ve come out from under the rug, and I’m going to tell it like it is.” - Fannie Lou Hamer

Speeches.

1963

I Don’t Mind My Light Shining
Greenwood, MS
Freedom Vote Rally

Federal Trial Testimony
Oxford, MS
Following Winona Jail Beating

1964

Testimony Before Select Panel
Washington, D.C.
Panel on Mississippi and Civil Rights

Testimony Before the Credentials Committee
Atlantic City, NJ
Democratic National Convention

We’re On Our Way
Indianola, MS
Mass Meeting

I’m Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired
Harlem, NY
Speech Delivered with Malcolm X at The Williams Institutional CME Church

1965

Testimony Before the Subcommittee on Elections of the Committee on House Administration
Washington, D.C.
House of Representatives

Interview with Fannie Lou Hamer by Colin Edwards
Berkely, CA

1967

The Only Thing We Can Do Is to Work Together
Mississippi
Chapter Meeting of the National Council of Negro Women in MS

1968

What Have We To Hail?
Kentucky

Speech on Behalf of the Alabama Delegation
Chicago, IL
Democratic National Convention

1969

To Tell It Like It Is
Lexington, MS
Holmes County, MS Freedom Democratic Party Municipal Elections Rally

Testimony
Jackson, MS
Democratic Reform Committee

To Make Democracy a Reality
Berkeley, CA
Vietnam War Moratorium Rally

1970

America Is a Sick Place, and Man Is on the Critical List
Chicago, IL
Speech at Loop College

1971

Until I Am Free, You Are Not Free Either
Madison, WI
Speech at the University of Wisconsin

Is It Too Late?
Tougaloo, MS
Speech at Tougaloo College

Nobody’s Free Until Everybody’s Free
Washington, D.C.
Speech at the Founding of the National Women’s Political Caucus

If the Name of the Game Is Survive, Survive
Ruleville, MS

1972

Seconding Speech for the Nomination of Frances Farenthold
Miami Beach, FL
Democratic National Convention

Interview with Fannie Lou Hamer by Dr. Neil McMillen
Ruleville, MS (1972/1973)
Oral History Program, University of Southern Mississippi

1976

We Haven’t Arrived Yet
Madison, WI
Presentation and Responses to Questions at the University of Wisconsin

Songs.

The 20th child of a Mississippi sharecropper family and a commanding voice of the Civil Rights Movement, Fannie Lou Hamer (1917–1977) stood tall against the brutality, indignities, and intimidation of implacable racism.

She harnessed her mother’s gifts of song and plain-spoken wisdom to steel her fellow seekers of social justice, the cause to which she gave her life. Many have said it was Hamer’s singing that roused the crowd to action and gave them the courage to face formidable obstacles.

Songs My Mother Taught Me, a re-release of limited-edition 1963 field recordings, breathes new life into Fannie Lou Hamer’s inspiring legacy and her uncompromising call for a righteous world.

At 47 minutes in length and an accompanying 32-page booklet with photos. This recording is the eighth release in the Smithsonian Folkways African American Legacy Series, co-presented with the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.

These songs were also the soundtrack of the award-winning film, Fannie Lou Hamer’s America.

Songs My Mother Taught Me was nominated for Best Historical Album at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards (2016).