1. Fannie Lou Hamer By: Kayla LeSane

2. Early Life • Born: October 6, 1917 in Mississippi • She was the youngest of 20 children. • Her family lived in Mississippi. • Fannie Lou Hamer worked in the fields with her sharecropper parents at the age of six. • She only received only a sixth grade education.

3. Life Story • In 1924 she married Perry “Pap” Hamer. • She had two adopted children. • Fannie Lou Hamer as a founding member and a vice president Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. • She attended meetings for the Region Council of Negro Leadership. • Fannie Lou became the secretary for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and encouraged people to challenge voter registration procedures that excluded African-Americans. • In 1963, she was charged with disorderly conduct for going to a “whites only” restaurant and had to go to jail. • At jail, she was badly beaten and refused medical treatment, so she was permanently disabled. • In 1964 she organized the “freedom Summer” in Mississippi.

4. Accomplishments • Fannie Lou brought, a Head Start Program to her local community, to form a local Pig bank. • She ran for the Mississippi state Senate in 1971. • She was a very powerful speaker. • In 1972 the Mississippi House of Representatives pass a resolution honoring her national and state activism.

5. Legacy • Fannie Lou Hamer suffered from breast cancer, diabetes, and heart problems. • She died in Mississippi March 14,1977.