By Marisa Michaud
Born the daughter of a sharecropper in rural Mississippi in 1917, Fannie Lou Hamer rose to national prominence during the 1964 Democratic National Convention, while a delegate for the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. At a day-long conference in Blackman Auditorium Wednesday, hundreds of people gathered to honor Hamer’s role in politics and present an award in her name.
As the DNC set up shop in Atlantic City, N.J. in 1964, Hamer’s civil rights-based party was sent to challenge the all-white Mississippi delegation. Since some black Americans didn’t have the absolute right to vote, the MFDP charged that the Mississippi delegation did not fairly represent the people of their state.
Hamer addressed the Credentials Committee at the convention and attempted to shake the conscience of the nation. To a national audience, Hamer described her severe beating at the hands of police officers while attempting to vote.
“She knew that attempting to register to vote in Mississippi in those times was dangerous. She knew she could be killed,” said the Rev. Edwin R. King, a friend and fellow civil rights worker.
Forty years after Hamer’s attempt to diversify the Mississippi delegation, U.S. Representative Maxine Waters was presented with the Fannie Lou Hamer Award during the conference Wednesday. In her seventh term in the House of Representatives, Waters represents the 35th district of California and has ardently advocated for women, children and people of color throughout her political career.
The conference also hosted a panel discussion by four of Hamer’s close friends, some of whom were by her side through vicious beatings, while others stood next to her at the 1964 convention.
The conference attracted area high school students and Northeastern faculty and staff, as well as delegates attending the 2004 DNC at the FleetCenter.
Joseph Warren, special assistant to the director of government relations and community affairs for Northeastern, has been working to plan the conference since September.
“I felt strongly that the pioneer in the civil rights movement, Fannie Lou Hamer, was all but forgotten,” Warren said.
The program was a collaboration between the Northeastern African-American Studies Department and the Office of the Secretary of State of New Jersey. The program was also in celebration of the 30th anniversary of the NU African-American Studies Department.
