Saturday, September 26, 2009

Fannie Lou Hamer

This is the kind of cards (in general, all educational ones), about which i developed a huge affection.


It shows Medgar Evers and Fannie Lou Hamer, but the card itself speaks of Fammie only, who lived from 1917 till 1977, and is said to be a Mississippi sharecropper who fought back for black voting rights and spoke for many when she said "Im sick and tired of being sick and tired".....Im not sure how *I* would compose my state of mind right now, but it would somehow revolve around that line above...

This whole series of postcards was issued by the USPS and presents the Civil Rights Pioneers (which now that i think about it, is in a close relation with the postcard above, since i mentioned the human rights issue there as well...)
I will copy down the text fro, the front of the card, just in case it aint readable from this point of view...

Fannie was known for her electrifying speeches incorporating humour, biblical stories and songs and was a powerful voice of the Civil Rights Movement. She was the granddaughter of slaves and grew up in a Mississippi sharecropping family, the youngest of 20 brothers and sisters. Facing constant threats for working in voter registration drives, she was permanently disabled after being jailed and beaten in 1963 for violating a restaurant's "white's only" policy. She later said: "The only thing they could to me was to kill me and it seemed like they'd been trying to do that a little bit at a time ever since i could remember". Hamer confounded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party which successfully challenged the white Mississippi delegation to the 1964 Democratic National Convention. She travelled and worked tirelessly throughout the South, promoting the cause of Civil Rights because "I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired" she famously said.

I recall having come across this quote at other places but i never knew it came from such a woman and in such circumstances...

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