Historic Essay

. Fannie Lou Townsend Hamer . Fannie Lou Hamer was one of the most eloquent speakers for the civil rights movement in the south. She worked for political, social and economic equality for herself and all African Americans; she fought to integrate the national Democratic party, and became one of its first black delegates to a presidential convention.Fannie Lou Hamer spent most of her life in rural southern poverty, entering politics late in life out of …

…om cancer, hypertension, and diabetes. Guests at her funeral included U.N. ambassador Stokely Carmichael, civil rights leader Ella Baker, and more friends and admirers than could fit into the small Ruleville church. Andrew Young spoke, and according to Kay Mills, remembered Hamer as the woman who "shook the foundations of this nation." Her headstone bears words for which she was well known all her life: "I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired."