#OnThisDay 1917 Freedom fighter, activist and founder of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party Fannie Lou Hamer was born. She is one of the greatest freedom fighter in our nation's history.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fannie_Lou_Hamer

She was born to sharecroppers and was picking cotton by the age of 6. Because she was the only one who could read, she was the timekeeper on the plantation. When she was to have a uterine tumor removed, the doctor did a total hysterectomy - common practice on

Black women. After attending a SNCC meeting, she led 17 volunteers to register to vote. The police pulled their bus over for being too yellow and the owner of the plantation fired her and her husband. They moved, completely broke. After successfully registering to vote

she and other Black women were arrested for sitting in a white's only section of a bus station restaurant and arrested. In jail, she was brutally beaten = blood clot in her eye, kidney and leg damage. Undaunted, she founded the Missipppi Freedom Democratic Party.

As she challenged the local Democratic party machine for inclusion, her speech at the DNC credentials committee was considered so dangerous LBJ had an immediate press conference announcing - nothing. Her speech was replayed to huge audiences.

She wasn't finished. She ran for Congress but was banned from the ballot. She organized Freedom Summer that registered voters. She started a "Pig Bank" so Black farmers could make money.

She was a dynamo.

Here's more: https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/fannie-lou-hamer