Fannie Lou Hamer Postage Stamp
On February 21, 2009, the sacrifices of 12 civil rights pioneers were immortalized on postage stamps during the NAACP’s annual meeting in New York City. The Civil Rights Pioneers stamp sheet, bearing six 42-cent First-Class commemorative stamps were made available nationwide. The stamps were dedicated by U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors member Thurgood Marshall Jr., and honor the achievements of Ella Baker, Daisy Gatson Bates, J.R. Clifford, Charles Hamilton Houston, Ruby Hurley, Mary White Ovington, Joel Elias Spingarn, Mary Church Terrell, Oswald Garrison Villard, Walter White, Medgar Evers and Fannie Lou Hamer.
Medgar Evers’ widow and NAACP Chairman Emerita, Myrlie Evers-Williams, attended the ceremony.
“I am very pleased that the United States Postal Service has issued this stamp commemorating civil rights pioneers at this moment in time — just as the NAACP celebrates its historic 100th anniversary,” she said. “Those of us who have made a lifetime commitment to the NAACP realize the challenges and sacrifices faced by these pioneers and their tremendous dedication to the cause of justice. As we move forward to celebrate the future, we must not let younger generations forget these champions who paved the way for the advancements we enjoy today. I am deeply honored that Medgar Evers has been chosen to be immortalized with this select group of heroic legends.”
It was Evers-Williams who insisted that Fannie Lou Hamer and her husband be paired on the same stamp.
Black History Bus Wrap
Danville, Virginia
On Wednesday, February 3, 2021, and in observance of Black History Month, the Danville Transit System placed in service a new bus wrap that celebrates Black History over a 150-year period.
The concept for Danville’s bus wrap is similar to the Corpus Christi (Texas) Transit System’s 2018 Black History bus wrap. Public input was received regarding the bus wrap via the City of Danville’s Facebook page. Members of the Transportation Advisory Committee selected the images of 12 different African Americans for the bus wrap shown as a mural on both sides of a transit vehicle. The vehicle with the Black History bus wrap will be placed on different fixed-route bus runs. This bus can be viewed at Danville’s Transfer Center, which is located at 515 Spring St., during scheduled service breaks at 10:00 a.m. and 3:15 p.m., Monday through Saturday.
Those featured on the 2021 edition are listed below. In addition, biographical information concerning each distinguished individual recognized in the bus wrap is available for review inside Danville’s Transfer Center.
“Sick and Tired”
A song written and produced by the Sounds of Blackness
“Sick and Tired”
“Tired! (Fannie Lou Hamer said).
Sick and Tired. (Fannie Lou Hamer said)…
Tired of injustice and brutality.
Tired of the beatings and fatalities.
Tired of the racist inhumanity.
Sick and Tired of bein’ Sick and Tired.
Tired of the hate and discrimination.
Tired of the second-class frustration.
Tired of lynchings for generations,
Sick and tired a bein’ sick & tired.”
In June 2020, the three-time Grammy Award winning group, the Sounds of Blackness released a new song that they say is an “amazing anthem for the movement” and reflects the 400 years of systemic injustice, inequality and inhumanity that continues today.
The group’s manager said they are expressing the “perpetual pain and rage of Black people in the words of the great Fannie Lou Hamer: “I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired!” Fannie Lou Hamer spoke those words often as she diligently campaigned for equal rights for everyone during the 1960s and 70s, enduring beatings, jailing and death threats to do so.
Sounds of Blackness is a vocal and instrumental ensemble from Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota who perform music from several genres including R&B, soul, gospel and jazz. The group scored several hits on the Billboard R&B and Hot Dance Music/Club Play charts in the 1990s including I Believe, Testify and another upbeat anthem of sorts, Optimistic.
The group’s music director and producer, Gary Hines, said several Sounds of Blackness soloists are featured on the life-changing track, along with the unmistakable voice of Jamecia Bennet, who also directed the “Sick and Tired” video. The song also features their special guests, HSRA (High School for Recording Arts). The song was recorded at the charter high school in St. Paul, Minnesota.
The Fannie Lou Hamer Black Resource Center
University of California Berkeley
Berkeley, California
The Fannie Lou Hamer Black Resource Center (FLHBRC) opened at UC Berkeley (pictured) in February 2017. The center provides a much needed locale for student communities, particularly marginalized and underrepresented groups.
The FLHBRC was created in response to demands made by UC Berkeley’s Black Student Union. And addresses their critical call for a safe convening environment that will create space and opportunity for African and African American students and organizations to organize and engage in academic, social-emotional, social-cultural, leadership and networking activities and can also enhance exchanges with faculty, staff, alumni and community stakeholders. Black students, staff, faculty and other black organizations use the space daily.
In 2018, the African American Student Development at Cal received a gift from Sidalia Reel, the Director of the Staff Diversity Initiatives to commemorate the one year anniversary of the FLHBRC.
A year after the FLHBRC opened, students celebrated what they accomplished with the center by having various events throughout the day.
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
Fannie Lou Hamer License Plate
On July 1, 2015, Mississippi residents gained another way to support the Fannie Lou Hamer Cancer Foundation by purchasing a historic automobile license plate that bears the foundation's name.
The foundation applied for a specialty license plate to help further raise awareness of the issues of cancer as well to raise funds to support the construction of a new headquarters which will be located in Ruleville, Miss., the hometown of the late civil rights leader, Fannie Lou Hamer, who died from untreated breast cancer.
A few years after the University of Southern Mississippi developed the Mississippi Network for Cancer Control and Prevention, the Fannie Lou Hamer Cancer Foundation was born. The license plate was previously approved by the Mississippi Legislature and Gov. Phil Bryant. The license plate was designed by the late Cordina Barber, a native of Ruleville, who served as a Community Health Advisor.
Fannie Lou Hamer Post Office
Ruleville, Mississippi
On Saturday, February 18, 1995, a dedication ceremony was held at the new Fannie Lou Hamer Post Office in Hamer’s hometown of Ruleville.
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.
National Women’s Hall of Fame
Year of Induction: 1993 Achievement: Humanities
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!”
Fannie Lou Hamer Library
“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."
- Rosemary Luckett, Manager of the Fannie Lou Hamer Library
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.”
Library activities include Storytime.
Children of all ages enjoy the many programs hosted by the library.
Mississippi Smiles partnered with the library several years ago and teaches children about proper dental hygiene.
Located in the Golden Key enVision Center, at 3450 Albermarle Road in Jackson, Mississippi, the Fannie Lou Hamer Library hosts numerous programs for children and students throughout the year. All of those activities focus on education, reading, the arts and physical health. Luckett said the library has been closed for renovations since 2019. And the COVID-19 pandemic and other internal issues slowed that progress. But Luckett said they are getting closer to completion.
“We still have curbside service and we have the Brinkley Middle School right across the street”, said Luckett. “And we’re in the process of getting the furnishings right now.”
Luckett, who’s been with the Jackson Hinds Library Service for nearly 30 years, says individuals and groups often call or visit the library hoping to learn more about its namesake.
“We’re a small library,” she said. “But once the renovations are done, we want this library to be something we can be proud of, something the community can be proud of. And I want this to be a learning experience for people so when they walk in the door, they will see things connected to Fannie Lou Hamer. You will see her pictures. Her posters. I envision it as a mini-museum that will tell her life story. I want them to walk in and say, ‘Wow! Isn’t this interesting.’ I have a passion for Fannie Lou Hamer and she deserves the best of the best.”
(All photos courtesy of Rosemary Luckett)
A program on recycling taught children how to make Water Bug Bottles.
Physical activities include Line Dancing.
Visiting speakers include the Mississippi Natchez Trace Rangers who keep the parkway safe.
Children learn about physical well-being from partners like Magnolia Health.
Actress, dancer and cellist Bridgeet Olugbala performed for the students and then read to them.
Dr. Rhythm engages the students before showing them his various instruments.