Known for: civil rights activism; called "the spirit of the civil rights movement"
Occupation: sharecropper; field work from age 6; timekeeper on cotton plantation; field secretary for SNCC; activist
Dates: October 6, 1917 - March 14, 1977
Also known as: Fannie Lou Townsend Hamer
More About Fannie Lou Hamer:
Background, Family:
- Father: Jim Townsend
- Mother: Ella Townsend
- youngest of 20 children
- born in Montgomery County, Mississippi; family moved when she was two to Sunflower County, Mississippi
Education:
attended segregated school system in Mississippi, with a short school year to accommodate field work as a child of a sharecropping family; dropped out by 6th grade
Marriage, Children:
- husband: Perry "Pap" Hamer (married 1942; tractor driver)
- children (adopted): Dorothy Jean, Vergie Ree
Religion: Baptist
Organizations: Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), National Council of Negro Women (NCNW), Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP), National Women's Political Caucus (NWPC), others
