Fannie Lou Hammer: Civil Rights Activist

The leader I choose was Maya Angelou. Maya Angelou was an African American Civil Rights activist, Author, & poet who issued 7 autobiographies 3 essay books and various poetry books, and had done a number of plays. She was born in St. Louis, Missouri on April 4, 1928 and recently died on May 28, 2014. Some time during World War 2 Maya won a Scholarship to study acting and dance at the California Labor School, in San Francisco, California. At the time Maya became the first African American female cable car conductor(A job she had for a short amount of time).

Medgar Evers was a Civil Rights Activist and was born in July 2, 1925, in Decatur, Mississippi. Medgar grew up in a farming family. In 1943, he was drafted into the U.S. Army. Three years later, after fighting in France and Germany, he received an honorable discharge.

Clara Barton-Angel of the Battlefield Clarissa Harlowe Barton born on December 25, 1821 in Oxford, Massachusetts lived a remarkable life. She was the fifth child of Stephen and Sarah Barton. Her father was a farmer and state legislator and had served in the Revolutionary War (1775-1783). Clara’s mother was a homemaker, however, Clara was often under the care of her older brothers and sisters. She became a well renowned woman in the history of the United States and in women history she showed that a woman can do the same things as a man.

Hamer was an informal bridge leader for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. When activists Annelle Ponder and Septima Clark came to Mississippi to teach people about voting registration, Hamer’s attention was sparked. A few weeks later, Hamer and a few other citizen of Mississippi set off to Charleston, South Carolina to share what they learned. They planned on teaching classes on voter registration. The group consisted of John Brown, Bernard Washington, Euvester Simpson, June Johnson, Rosemary Freeman, James West, Annelle Ponder, and Hamer herself.

James L. Farmer . (January 12 , 1920-July 9 , 1999) was a civil rights activist and a leader in the American civil rights movement “who pushed for nonviolent protest to dismantle segregation” , And he served alongside Martin Luther King Jr. (He was the initiator and organizer of the 1961 freedom ride) , which eventually led to the Desegregation of inter-state transportation in the united states of America. James L. Farmer was interested in Racial Equality , he was the co-founder the Committee Of Racial Equality in Chicago with George Houser and Bernice Fisher .

Mrs. Frankie Muse Freeman is the most inspiring person of 1964, because she changed the world when people were racially discriminating and when it was not common for women to be in positions of power; this was at a time that it was acceptable. Mrs. Freeman worked really hard in life to be a good person and do what’s right to fix these problems. According to operationalizebeauty.com, Freeman said that, “Beauty comes from within, it’s in your attitude and it’s how you treat people. ”She made the community better a lot like her parents did, working many jobs, including co-counseling in the NAACP. In addition, President Johnson asked her to be on the new U.S. civil rights commission in 1964.

Benjamin Mays, the youngest of eight children, born August 1, 1894 near Epworth, South Carolina was raised on a cotton farm and was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Bates College in Main. He served as a pastor of Shiloh Baptist Church from 1921-1923 in Atlanta, Georgia. Recruited by Morehouse President John Hope, Mays would join the faculty as a mathematics teacher and debate coach. He became the president Morehouse College in 1920 and launched a 27-year tenure that shepherded the institution into international prominence.

In early life Medgar Evers grow up with a farming family. Medgar Evers was a civil rights activist. He was also in the army for 2 years. When he came back home he finished high school and went to college. Medgar Evers was born July, 2 ,1925, Decatur, Mississippi.

As the quote reads above, we often only remember Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X and tend to forget about Thurgood Marshall who also and important figure of the civil rights movement as Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X were. Thurgood Marshall was the first black supreme court justice. Marshall was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1908. In his college years he went to the historically black Lincoln University. After, he applied at University of Maryland Law School but was denied because he was black.

Benjamin “Pap” Singleton was an African-American civil rights activist and successful businessman integral to the beginnings of black nationalism. He greatly influenced the resettlement of thousands of African-Americans to Kansas, know as the “Great Exodus,” after the ending of Reconstruction. There he advocated for black-owned businesses and fought to improve black communities through providing education and jobs. Youth and Freedom Benjamin Singleton was born into slavery somewhere around Nashville, Tennessee in 1809. During his youth he trained and worked as a carpenter and cabinet maker.

Fannie Lou Hamer was a civil rights activist who told a story of how her suffering and being in a racist society helps focus attention on the difficulties for African Americans throughout the south. She worked with Student in 1946 for in a nonviolent committee called the SNCC. She also helped organize a voter registration for African Americans in her hometown of Mississippi. As well as during the democratic national convention she was part of the Mississippi freedom democratic party, this was a group of people (activists) who challenge the all white segregation rules in Mississippi. Fannie was born in Montgomery Mississippi on October 6, 1917.

The historical figure that took a stand to challenge the rules was William Edward Burghardt. William was one of the most influential figures in American civil rights history. Did you know that in 1895 Dubois became the african American to earn a P.H.D from harvard university. WIlliam Edward Burghardt was a civil rights activist, meaning a leader of a political movement which is dedicated to securing equal opportunities for members. Dr William Edward Burghardt was disliked by his own country, and many of his friends abandoned him because they were scared of the wrath of the U.S government so they sadly abandoned WIlliam.

Dorothy height was born in Richmond Virginia on March 24, 1912. Height was a civil rights activist along with a women’s right activist. Over the span of her career height received more than 50 awards from varies local, state, and national organizations. Some her major awards that she received were; Presidential Citizens Medal in 1989, Spingarn Medal in 1993, Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994, Jefferson Awards for Public Service in 2001, Heinz Awards in 2001, and Congressional Gold Medal in 2004. While height was fighting for social reforms for both genders she was mainly focused on reforms for African American women.

Not only did her testimony confirm her authority to speak for those affected by injustice but Fannie Lou Hamer’s general history and experience as a civil rights activist shows that she was fit to speak on the behalf of those demanding action from the government. As a civil rights activist, “Hamer dedicated her life to the fight for civil rights, working for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee” (“Fannie Lou Hamer Biography”). The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was an organization of African-Americans who fought against racial segregation in the south by engaging in civil disobedience (“Fannie Lou Hamer Biography”). Hamer was a passionate member of the SNCC who truly wanted to liberate black citizens from an unjust

Besides the more prominent Black male leaders of the Civil Rights Movement both black and white women played an important role in the struggle for racial equality. Women’s experiences in the Civil Rights Movement can tell us a lot about the lives of extraordinary women and their ability to gain power in the movement towards equality. Although Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King were major women leaders of the movement, there were numerous other women that played key roles in the fight for equality, such as Ella Baker. Ella Baker fought for civil rights on the front lines for over half a century. Ella Baker was born in Norfolk, Virginia, in 1903 and grew up in Littleton, North Carolina.