“If she were alive to see how she was honored on that day, I know she would have remained humble and would have reminded us that the battle is not over,” Flakes said. “Everything that is going on now, went on back then.”
The marker, which commemorates Hamer’s courageous attempt on August 31, 1962, marks the location at 200 Second Street, where Hamer and 18 others were turned away by county officials for failing the literacy test - a test not required by potential white voters. It was at a mass meeting at William Chapel Church four days earlier in her native Ruleville and organized by SNCC (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee founded by the late Congressman John Lewis) that Hamer learned she had the legal right to vote.
After leaving the courthouse, which was later torn down, and rebuilt in 1966, Hamer began working with SNCC on their voter registration efforts. Hamer went on to become the “spark plug” of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, an organization she helped form in April 1964 that helped thousands of African Americans to register and vote. She also helped organize Freedom Summer that brought hundreds of students to the Magnolia State to help poor Blacks register to vote. Hamer’s efforts were not without impunity as she endured several assassination attempts, and a brutal jailhouse beating in Winona, MS, at the hands of local law enforcement. Hamer spoke of her ordeal on national television when she testified before the Credentials Committee on Aug. 22, 1964.
Hamer’s efforts influenced the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
The new Fannie Lou Hamer Marker celebrates that achievement and was spearheaded by 17-year-old Brian Diyaolu, a Public History student at Mississippi Valley State University, and his adjunct professor, Dr. C. Sade Turnipseed.
"At MVSU, we care about historical figures in America. We want to make sure these cherished and important people are remembered,” said Diyaolu. “Individuals are remembered in the sands of time, and Mrs. Hamer falls in this category of people, so we made it our sacred duty to honor her contributions so that she is not forgotten," he added.
“The students and faculty of MVSU truly carried on the legacy of my mom by unveiling the Fannie Lou Hamer Marker at the Sunflower County Courthouse in Indianola,” Flakes said. “Mrs. Turnipseed…along with her student from Nigeria, spoke so well about the civil rights movement and the activists who started their journey right there where we were, at the courthouse.”
