Apparently, some people wonder why it grated on many African Americans to hear Dr. Laura Schlessinger say “Nigger! Nigger! Nigger!” to a black woman on her radio show. They might understand it a little better if they think about the story behind a famous quote that’s associated with today’s date.
In the decades leading up to the 1960s, southern states like Mississippi prevented black people from voting by using various legal hurdles (such as “literacy tests” and “poll taxes”), intimidation and violence.
But by the Sixties, civil rights activists were increasingly challenging racist barriers to voting rights.
One of those activists was Fannie Lou Hamer (1917-1977) of Montgomery County, Mississippi. In 1962, at age 45, she attended a sermon given by Rev. James Bevel, an associate of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Bevel ended his sermon by urging his listeners to register to vote and support black voter registration efforts.
At the time, “uppity niggers” who tried to register as voters in Mississippi were often threatened, harassed, beaten, and even lynched. When Hamer had tried to register, the white farmer she worked for fired and evicted her.
Before that, she had endured other forms of discrimination that are even more shocking. For example, in 1961, without her consent or knowledge, she was sterilized by a white doctor as a part Mississippi’s plan to reduce the number of poor blacks in the state.
After hearing Rev. Bevel’s sermon in 1962, Hamer was inspired to become a volunteer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), one of the leading civil rights groups of the era.
In 1963, during a SNCC trip to register black voters in Winona, Mississippi, Hamer and four other SNCC volunteers were savagely beaten and arrested by the police. Hamer later recalled that, from her cell, she could hear the sound of continued beatings and a policeman yelling: “Can you say, ‘yes, sir,’ nigger?”
It took Hamer more than a month to recover and left her partially disabled.
Undeterred, she went on to help organize the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. And, in 1964, the MFDP asked the the National Democratic Party to seat their chosen delegates at the party’s upcoming National Democratic Convention in Atlantic City.
This created a dilemma for the Democrats. At the time, the official Democratic Party delegation from Mississippi was all white. They demanded that the Credential’s Committee reject the MFDP’s request and said Southern Democrats would abandon President Lyndon Johnson in the 1964 presidential election if any MFDP delegates were seated.
However, feeling pressure to show some sympathy for the rights of African Americans, the Credentials Committee invited Hamer’s group to make a presentation.
On August 22, 1964, Hamer appeared before the committee. She gave a moving account of the harassment and violence she and other blacks had suffered while trying to gain the right to vote in Mississippi. She ended her comments with a memorable question:
“If the Freedom Democratic Party is not seated now, I question America,” Hamer said. “Is this America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, where we have to sleep with our telephones off the hooks because our lives be threatened daily, because we want to live as decent human beings, in America?”
President Johnson tried to divert attention from Hamer and the MFDP dilemma by holding an impromptu press conference. But, to his dismay, Hamer’s speech still received widespread coverage in the news.
Johnson then sent Senator Hubert Humphrey and other Democratic leaders to meet with Hamer and her colleagues. He offered to give the MFDP two non-voting seats at the convention. They refused to accept this crumb or other token “compromises” the Democrats offered.
When asked why she persisted, Fannie Lou gave an answer she’d used before when asked why she persevered in her civil rights efforts.
“All my life I’ve been sick and tired. Now I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired.’”
The last part of Hamer’s response — “I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired” — became a famous quote forever associated with her.
After failing to get Hamer and the MFDP to accept a compromise, Johnson and the Democrats decided they feared a white Southern backlash in 1964 more than rejection by the black Americans who were able to vote. So, they refused seat any MFDP members as voting delegates.
But the public attention generated by the issue and by Hamer’s speech added to the momentum for change.
A year later, the Democratically-controlled Congress passed — and President Johnson signed — the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which prohibited states from denying voting rights “on account of race.”
And, for its 1968 national convention, the National Democratic Party adopted a policy requiring African Americans to be fairly represented in state delegations.
One of the voting delegates seated at that 1968 convention was Fannie Lou Hamer.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Comments? Questions? Corrections? Post them on my quotations Facebook group.
