Fannie Lou Hammer: Civil Rights Activist

Sojourner Truth was a prominent abolitionist and women’s rights activist. Born a slave in New York State, she had at least three of her children sold away from her. After escaping slavery, Truth embraced evangelical religion and became involved in moral reform and abolitionist work. She collected supplies for black regiments during the Civil War and immersed herself in advocating for freed people during the Reconstruction period. Isabella escaped slavery in 1827, one year before mandatory emancipation in New York State, by fleeing to a Quaker family, the Van Wageners, whose name she took. She moved to New York City, worked as a domestic, became involved in moral reform, embraced evangelical religion, started her street-corner preaching career,

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). Other than that she was An author, poet , screenwriter, etc.

The concept here is to understand what the term “nonviolence resistance” means. Fannie Lou Hamer, Martin Luther King, and James Baldwin all talked about the unfair treatment that blacks faced simply because of their skin color. The similarities that these individuals shared was based around the want of equal rights. Martin Luther King was determined to change how races interacted with one another. Fannie Lou Hamer wanted equal voting rights for African Americans because she believed they should have the same rights as whites. James Baldwin lived through the hardships and hatred in this time and wanted his nephew to be strong and aware of how he could push through. Each of these people were selfless in the manner and longed for change in the society as a whole. The texts of these people are closely related, not in content, but the meaning behind them.

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. This trip was about more than just teaching voter registration. The group set out to also test their limits with segregated bus terminals as well as with food counters (Lee 1999).

“Pray not for your mom and pop, they’ve gone to heaven. Pray you can make it through this hell,” the often-forgotten civil rights leader, Reverend George W. Lee said at a conference about racial tensions in the south. Lee was not only a very important person to his community but also the entire civil rights movement in the United States that lasted from 1954-1968. Few documents exist on Lee and his life, so in order to inform people of these, it is necessary to discuss his upbringing, his political activism, and his assassination.

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. She advocated for things like freedom of choice for women and for better living along with working conditions for women and men. The life and accomplishments of height and how she fought for the escape from racial and sexual discrimination, and is not mentioned in history classes today, shows how inherently harder it is for women to fight for justice during the civil rights movement.

Social justice is the judicious distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society. So, a Social Justice Hero is someone who made significant contributions to the advancement of social justice.

Everyone has a why and it takes a leader to fulfill theirs why. Every leader has their trial and tribulation. But it takes a person who sees that there is a problem within the community and wants to make it better. There were many players who were involved in the civil rights movement. There were many key players who wanted to see change such ass W.E.B Du bois, Ida B Wells, Booker T. Washington and many. The person I will be mainly talking about is Ida B Wells. Ida B Wells was a phenomenal woman who had a why. Who wouldn’t back down from anything no matter what backlash she would get from it? She was part of a few who begin the Civils Right movement. She displays resilient and also perseverance. So throughout this essay, I'll go into depth of who she was, what her why was and how she executed it.

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.

You should always believe in yourself and never give up no matter what happens. Always be the leader and not the follower. Civil Rights activist, Diane Nash when she was a student she witnessed southern racial segregation for the first time in her life. Diane Nash helped me understand that we should become leaders for the black society. I also had to overcome some challenges to help other people and be a leader in the classroom.

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.

In 1999, Chana Kai Lee wrote a biography, “For Freedom’s Sake: The Life of Fannie Lou Hamer,” to instill in her readers the life and torments African American’s had during the Civil Rights movement. Fannie Lou Hamer (born Townsend) was the last of twenty to two sharecroppers in Montgomery County, Mississippi, and after growing up working the fields in rural poverty, Fannie Lou married Perry Hamer in 1944. In 1962, she had a life-changing experience when she attempted to register to vote for the first time. Hamer, from then on, consumed herself in Civil Rights in every aspect even if she put herself in harm’s way.

The temperance movement was created because there were many people getting high and misusing alcohol. It helped to moderate alcohol consumption to a safe level.

Ever hear of baseball hall of famer and great Jackie Robinson? Jackie Robinson was the first African-American to play in baseball history. Robinson was also one of the bravest people to ever play the sport. He was a great role models for African-Americans, and a role model for even whites as the people started to accept him as a great player. Robinson had helped the civil rights movement by: making blacks more acceptable in sports, showing people not to give up on your dreams, and do whatever you can do to make the dreams come true, and he taught the people to never give up on what they believe in.

Sojourner Truth, a women’s rights activist and an abolitionist, had arrived to a women’s rights convention in hopes of convincing men and women for equity between the two. With an intent to shed light of the prejudice women were facing at the time, she recited her speech “Ain’t I a Woman?” and garnered much attention, so much so that she is now considered a historical figure. In fact, her speech explaining the injustice of the behavior toward women is still very much relevant today; one culture it is certainly pertinent to is Armenia.