The Black community has more than 30 organizations that represent the academic, business, civic, fraternal, social and cultural communities. The composite of these organizations host more than 200 events and activities throughout the year. The center also provides programs and events in collaboration with campus and community partners.

Fannie Lou Hamer provides multiple benefits to the community including:

• Student Group Convening Space

• Programming Space: undergraduates, graduates, staff and faculty

• Enhanced Academic Support and Workshops including:

• Tutoring, advising and study skill support

• Writing workshops, Science and Math Support

• Studying, homework space

• Professional Development and Networking Events

• Academic and Community Lecture Series

• Cultural Programs: festivals, art galleries, exhibits

• Special Talks and Workshops On: mental and physical health

• Alumni, Faculty and Staff Event

Among those who came to honor Hamer at the dedication ceremony was Congressman Bennie Thompson (D) who introduced the bill which became a law on Nov. 2, 1994. Others who attended included Hamer’s daughters, Vergie Hamer-Faulkner and Lenora Flakes Hamer, and several of her colleagues who joined her in the fight for equal rights: Lawrence, Guyot, Unita Blackwell, Owen Brooks and Charles McLaurin. 

Incorporated in 1969, the National Women’s Hall of Fame is the nation’s first and oldest nonprofit organization and museum dedicated to honoring and celebrating the achievements of distinguished American women. It was one year earlier, in 1968, that Shirley Hartley, first envisioned the idea of the tribute in Seneca Falls, New York, the birthplace of the Women’s Rights Movement. 

The first attempt to organize a national movement for women’s rights occurred in Seneca Falls, in July 1848. Led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a young mother from upstate New York, and the Quaker abolitionist Lucretia Mott, about 300 people—most of whom were women—attended the Seneca Falls Convention to outline a direction for the women’s rights movement. Stanton’s call to arms, her “Declaration of Sentiments,” echoed the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal.”

In December 1968, Hartley invited friends, associates, potential donors and many of the town’s leaders to an event she called the “Founders’ Tea,” which served as an homage to Stanton, Mott, Martha Wright, Mary Ann McClintock, and Jane Hunt, who famously convened over a cup of tea in 1848 to exchange ideas about women’s rights. 

Fannie Lou Hamer was inducted into the hall in 1993. Other inductees include Dorothy Height, Ella Baker, Barbara Jordan and Shirley Chisolm. 

Today, the organization is housed in the historic 1844 Seneca Knitting Mill building and boasts over 300 inductees. Tours of the gallery are conducted, as they continue to preserve the most important roots and share their mission of: “Showcasing great women…Inspiring all!”  

In 1992, and at the initiation of Ward 3 Councilman Kenneth Stokes, the Albermarle Reading Center in Jackson, Mississippi, was renamed the Fannie Lou Hamer Library. Although there was no formal unveiling or dedication - complete with pomp and circumstance - the intention of the organizers was clear, to honor a woman who had done so much not only for the state of Mississippi, but for a nation.

“It came before the Jackson City Council that it would be better to name these libraries after someone who had a passion for helping the community. And Fannie Lou Hamer is that someone," said Rosemary Luckett, manager of the Fannie Lou Hamer Library. "She loved doing for people – feeding people. And these were people who were not looking for just a handout. They were looking for a hand up.”