...Fannie Lou Hamer, a Fight for equality. Racial and social rights were the largest debate in America throughout the 20th century, and since the issues were so great America saw major achievements in social reforms on all fronts. Generally the leaders of these movements were educated middle class white women, like Betty Friedan, and Alice Paul. Although these women were major contributors to the cause, they claimed to be victims of the oppression of male dominance, but the privileged white women doesn’t even come close to the social inequalities and injustices dealt to women like Fannie Lou Hamer. Hamer was a victim of racial and sexual discrimination from the day she was born. Although Hamer was born into a lower class, slave like family, she refused to become a victim of the system and rose to become a prominent figure for the rights of all black people especially women. As stated previously most rights activists came from middle class families who were sent through a college education. Whereas Fannie Lou Hamer was born into a family of share croppers, and was the last of twenty children. Obviously Hamer grew up in an extremely poor household, and she ended up dropping out of school to work full time on the fields with her family. In the 1950’s Hamer became a victim to one of her major forms of injustice, “She went into a hospital to have a small cyst in her stomach removed, only to wake up and find that she had been given a hysterectomy.” (Lee 21). Without her permission...
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...Fannie was deprived and illiterate. She belongs to one poor family. She always look like a lifeless person. Fannie Lou Hamer father was one nice person. He used to tell jokes to Fannie at night and in return she used to sing. The family was poor enough to sleep on cotton sacks that was bursting with dry grass or corn shucks. Fannie’s father died in 1939. She was left behind with her mother who went blind after one tragic accident. Her brother and sisters left her alone in the house to seek better life. They left for cities like Chicago. Fannie Lou was the youngest sibling. She was the one who left with the parents and was taking care of her sick mother until she passed away in 1961. During these hard times, Fannie used to work all day and night long that she can’t get enough time to sleep. Fannie Lou Hamer was short, squat black women. She married to Perry Hamer in 1944. Perry Hamer was a tall, tough sharecropper. He had gone down to the Delta from Kilmichael in Montgomery County thirteen years prior to scout about. Perry was thirty two years old when he got married to Fannie Lou. Fannie was five years younger to him. In winters pap shoot rabbits to eat and have their meat. For refreshment, they used to go for fishing to catch perch or catfish (Young, 2002)....
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...Fannie Lou Hamer was a leader in the Civil Rights Movement, women's rights activist, and a community organizer. Fannie Lou Hamer (formerly Townsend) was born on October 6, 1917 in Montgomery County, Mississippi. She was the youngest child of twenty children. Fannie joined her parents in working the fields at age six. She later marries Perry “Pap” Hamer in 1944. The couple were both sharecroppers in Ruleville, Mississippi. Fannie and Pap Hamer adopted two girls due to Fannie’s own pregnancies ending in miscarriages. In 1961, Hamer was given a hysterectomy without her consent when she went to a Sunflower County hospital for a minor uterine surgery. This illegal procedure was also known in the area as a “Mississippi appendectomy.” In the summer...
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...Paper The Civil Rights Era, which took place during the years of 1955 till 1968, was indeed the movement that gave African Americans the push to achieve their first major accomplishments of the decade. The Civil Rights Movements goals were to break down the walls of legal segregation in public places, achieve equality and justice for African Americans, and to help make African Americans become more self-conscious when standing for all their interest. This movement not only benefited men, but it also benefited women. African American women played a large role in the history of the civil rights era. According to Lee Sartain, “Female activists were integral to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and often in the front lines of the civil rights struggle. Commentators on the period, however, have generally ignored the role of these activists mainly, because women were not prominent in media reporting on the early struggles for civil rights (Sartain).”Even as of today most NAACP members and most local branch presidents are women. Vivian Malone Jones defied segregationist Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace to enroll in the University of Alabama in 1963 and later worked in the civil rights division of the U.S. Justice Department. The African American women of the Civil Rights Era were often overlooked, because of the race and their gender. Not only was racism an issue, but also sexism. No one took a woman serious during those times; they barely took men...
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...Differentiating Fannie Lou Hamer and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Both Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Fannie Lou Hamer are extraordinarily important figures that were involved in the civil rights movement. These two people left a massive impact on this specific movement. Each used their own method of presenting their particular lectures. Hamer took the approach of presenting her speech as more of a testimony, but Dr. King Jr. delivered his talk as more of an oration. The two divergent styles caused the people of America to merge together to generate a nation that fights with one another for uniform privileges. Hamer delivered a speech that was more of a personal story of what happened and occurred in the past. It was her personal experience....
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...Final Research Paper The Civil Rights Era, which took place during the years of 1955 till 1968, was indeed the movement that gave African Americans the push to achieve their first major accomplishments of the decade. The Civil Rights Movements goals were to break down the walls of legal segregation in public places, achieve equality and justice for African Americans, and to help make African Americans become more self-conscious when standing for all their interest. This movement not only benefited men, but it also benefited women. African American women played a large role in the history of the civil rights era. According to Lee Sartain, “Female activists were integral to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and often in the front lines of the civil rights struggle. Commentators on the period, however, have generally ignored the role of these activists mainly, because women were not prominent in media reporting on the early struggles for civil rights (Sartain).”Even as of today most NAACP members and most local branch presidents are women. Vivian Malone Jones defied segregationist Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace to enroll in the University of Alabama in 1963 and later worked in the civil rights division of the U.S. Justice Department. The African American women of the Civil Rights Era were often overlooked, because of the race and their gender. Not only was racism an issue, but also sexism. No one took a woman serious during those times; they...
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...Pervasive Presence of Violence Throughout history there have always been prominent leaders, fighting for what they believe in no matter what the consequences. Constantly striving for change, those who had the courage to lead knew that it was only them who had the opportunity to make the future better for their children and grandchildren. Two prominent people that struggled to make a change in history were Malcolm X and Fannie Lou Hamer. One, an aggressive spokesman for Black Nationalism whose words aroused the eagerness of thousands of Black Americans struggling to break free from the mitigated clasp of poverty and racism. The other, an electrifying activist for American voting rights and a constant advocate fighting for civil rights. The two of them together fought for freedom and human justice in the south. Driving them was persistence and determination even though they constantly faced violence; they were diligent in fighting for the equal treatment among all races. So many people would call the 1960’s a decade of change. This was the period where people began to speak their minds, tell the truth, and give their opinion even if it wasn’t wanted, forcing change between whites and blacks. People of America no longer wanted a country that had a racially divided society, so the protesting was needed. Malcolm X, a man who risked his life for his brothers and sisters of America. Constantly telling of his faith and his truth, and this is what made him the intellectual hero...
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...I enjoyed going to see this musical play because it was inspirational for women and historical. The actress did a wonderful job to act out all characters. The plot of this play was to show three African-American women trying to better the world around them. The women discriminated for their gender and skin color but found success at the end. The play told the inside of the three historical women; Zora Neale Hurston, Clementine Hunter, and Fannie Lou. The play only consists of one actress to portray the characters and a three-man band for music. The actress played the women well to give us the emotions of the women. Part One was the inside of Zora Neale Hurston, an African-American novelist, at a party for the published her first book in 1934. The dialogue and music cues were helpful to describing the settings. Hurston was raised in an all-black town, so she didn't face racism much....
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...Erin Ryan wrote an article featured in Spotlight in First Year Writing, called “Telling it from the Mountain: A Rhetorical Analysis of Fannie Lou Hamer’s Speech before the Democratic National Convention”, analyzing the rhetorical qualities of Mrs. Hammers speech in 1964. My notebook entry will use material covered in the class text “Write about Writing” to highlight what Erin Ryan used in the rhetorical analysis of this emotional speech. In the retelling of Mrs. Hamer’s speech, Erin Ryan uses two forms of Aristotle’s proof (pistis) to elicit a response in the analysis. Reading through the article, I found two methods of appeal: emotion (pathos), and logic (logos). The emotional appeal of the article, describes Mrs. Hammers speech style....
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...insane. He created a lot of restrictive rules that hurt his people, including ordering many executions. His own half brothers ended up assassinating him. Cetewayo (1826-1884) Cetewayo, Shaka’s nephew, was a Zulu king known for his fierceness. In order to even become King he had to beat out his brother for the position. His leadership ability allowed him to lead a large army against the British and successfully hold them off for a longer period of time than expected when they tried to take Zulu land for themselves. Since the British had advanced technology that the Zulu didn’t have access to, such as cannons and guns, it was an impressive feat he could hold them off, although the Zulu did eventually lose to the British. Fannie Lou Hamer (1917-1977) Although Hamer is not found in WHO WINS?, we feel that she is someone worth talking about. Best known for the quote, "I am sick and tired of being sick and tired," she grew up facing a lot of discrimination and setbacks. A noteworthy example of her mistreatment was when she received surgery to remove a tumor and the doctor decided, without her consent, to remove her uterus as well. Later in life she would be fired for registering to vote, shot at, put in jail, and beaten until she had permanent kidney damage for her participation in peaceful protests. This didn’t stop her from (unsuccessfully) running for congress later in life and forming the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party that brought national attention to Mississippi’s civil...
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...At the midpoint of the twentieth century, African Americans once again answered the call to transform the world. The social and economic ravages of Jim Crow era racism were all-encompassing and deep-rooted. Yet like a phoenix rising from the ashes of lynch mobs, debt peonage, residential and labor discrimination, and rape, the black freedom movement raised a collective call of "No More"! The maintenance of white power had been pervasive and even innovative, and hence those fighting to get out from under its veil had to be equally unrelenting and improvisational in strategies and tactics. What is normally understood as the Civil Rights movement was in fact a grand struggle for freedom extending far beyond the valiant aims of legal rights and protection. From direct-action protests and boycotts to armed self-defense, from court cases to popular culture, freedom was in the air in ways that challenged white authority and even contested established black ways of doing things in moments of crisis. Dixie and Beyond By the middle of the twentieth century, black people had long endured a physical and social landscape of white supremacy, embedded in policy, social codes, and both intimate and spectacular forms of racial restriction and violence. The social and political order of Jim Crow—the segregation of public facilities—meant schools, modes of transportation, rest rooms, and even gravesites were separate and unequal. Yet the catch-all phrase "Jim Crow" hardly accounts for the...
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...The Basics on the Civil Right Movement Because large segments of the populace--particularly African-Americans, women, and men without property--have not always been accorded full citizenship rights in the American Republic, civil rights movements, or "freedom struggles," have been frequent features of the nation's history. In particular, movements to obtain civil rights for black Americans have had special historical significance. Such movements have not only secured citizenship rights for blacks but have also redefined prevailing conceptions of the nature of civil rights and the role of government in protecting these rights. The most important achievements of African-American civil rights movements have been the post-Civil War constitutional amendments that abolished slavery and established the citizenship status of blacks and the judicial decisions and legislation based on these amendments, notably the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision of 1954, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Moreover, these legal changes greatly affected the opportunities available to women, nonblack minorities, disabled individuals, and other victims of discrimination. The modern period of civil rights reform can be divided into several phases, each beginning with isolated, small-scale protests and ultimately resulting in the emergence of new, more militant movements, leaders, and organizations. The Brown decision demonstrated that the litigation...
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...vote under extreme intimidation and violence. After the death of a black participant in Selma, the idea of a march from Selma to Montgomery was agreed upon. Ultimately, this march would shock the public to the racist violence that continued to persist in Alabama, but, almost as important, the march created divisions between the black activist groups. This division would be highlighted with the rise of the Black Panther Party in Lowndes County, and the Meredith March in 1966. Although in the past, black organizations had worked together towards a common goal, the stress of a lack of progress in the South caused fracture within the movement. At the conclusion of Freedom Summer, some SNCC members, including Bob Moses, John Lewis, And Fannie Lou Hamer, took a goodwill trip to Africa. In Africa, the SNCC members experienced countries run by Africans, who had recently...
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...Nearly 100 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, African Americans in Southern states still inhabited a starkly unequal world of disenfranchisement, segregation and various forms of oppression, including race-inspired violence. “Jim Crow” laws at the local and state levels barred them from classrooms and bathrooms, from theaters and train cars, from juries and legislatures. In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the “separate but equal” doctrine that formed the basis for state-sanctioned discrimination, drawing national and international attention to African Americans’ plight. In the turbulent decade and a half that followed, civil rights activists used nonviolent protest and civil disobedience to bring about change, and the federal government made legislative headway with initiatives such as the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Civil Rights Act of 1968. Many leaders from within the African American community and beyond rose to prominence during the Civil Rights era, including Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, Andrew Goodman and others. They risked—and sometimes lost—their lives in the name of freedom and equality. Advertisement Freedom MarchPlay video Freedom March Bet You Didn't Know: Rosa ParksPlay video Bet You Didn't Know: Rosa Parks Condoleezza Rice: Memories of Dr. KingPlay video Condoleezza Rice: Memories of Dr. King BACKGROUND Because large segments of the populace–particularly African-Americans, women, and men without property–have...
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...Exam 2: Introduction to African American Studies Short Answer Questions: Be sure to respond to both parts of the question. (4 points each/100 points total) 1. Name the leader of Black America’s Accommodationist camp during the early twentieth century. Give an example of his “accommodationist” views. Booker T. Washington. Washington felt the best way for Black people in the South to get ahead was to stay with the same skills they had practiced under slavery, namely farming and vocational trades. “In all things that are purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress.” In this line, he indicates that Blacks and Whites can work together with the latter feeling no threat to the system of segregation in the South. 2. Who was considered the leader of Black America’s Radical camp? Give an example of his radical views. W.E.B. Du Bois. He is associated with the concept of “The Talented Tenth,” which is a reference to the top ten percent of Black Americans who Du Bois felt should lead the way in creating opportunities to advance the lives of all Black people. He also felt that Blacks should have the same rights that any White person had. 3. Who were considered the “Talented Tenth”? Name a specific person who fell into this group. A reference to the top ten percent of Black Americans who Du Bois felt should lead the way in creating opportunities to advance the lives of all Black people....
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