"No way on earth that we can gain any kind of political power unless we have some kind of economic power": Fannie Lou Hamer and the Freedom Farm Corporation, 1969-1977

This research considers the work of Fannie Lou Hamer (1917-1977), a leader in the civil rights movement, on the Freedom Farm Corporation. Founded in 1969, the farm was designed to support the impoverished and malnourished... [ view full abstract ]

This research considers the work of Fannie Lou Hamer (1917-1977), a leader in the civil rights movement, on the Freedom Farm Corporation. Founded in 1969, the farm was designed to support the impoverished and malnourished residents of the Mississippi Delta. Beyond providing these basic services, which Mississippi’s government had failed to do for centuries, the farm also served as a meeting ground for the civil and labor rights movements. In doing so, the Freedom Farm both confronted and reflected deeply-embedded historical forces in Mississippi that had been used to protect the power of white plantation owners at the expense of black farm workers since the 18th century. Using the Papers of Fannie Lou Hamer, archived and digitized by the Amistad Research Center, and firsthand observations of modern-day Mississippi, this research also addresses Hamer’s significant contributions as a leader of the Freedom Farm Corporation, as well as how her story and the broader civil rights narrative is presented in Mississippi today.