Political conventions are full of speeches by famous people. This week in Chicago, the Democtatic National Convention is no exception. Yet perhaps the most memorable speech at any DNC happened 60 years ago this week in Atlantic City, NJ. It was not a prime time address or even a speech on the floor of the convention. Rather it was an eight minute testimony by Fannie Lou Hamer before the credentials committee. She was among several people offering testimonies in support of a rule change to allow the delegation of the newly formed and racially integrated Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) to replace the all white and segregated Democratic delegation from that state. Although most of the other testimonies were by famous people including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the words of Fannie Lou Hamer went down in history as the most powerful and memorable of that convention. She grew up as a poor sharecropper in rural Mississippi without more than an elementary school education. Yet by 1962 as a woman in her forties, Mrs. Hamer decided to register to vote and participate in voter registration efforts in the state that was one of the most resistant to registering Black voters. Her riveting testimony at the 1964 DNC focused on what she had to endure to enable herself and others to register. This included being evicted in 1962 from her long time home by the land owner of the plantation where she was a sharecropper as well as a horrific beating that left her with permanent injuries by local law enforcement at the jail in Winona, MS in 1963. Fannie Lou Hamer’s testimony was so powerful that President Johnson, the presumptive nominee of the convention, scheduled an impromptu press conference to interrupt the live television coverage of her testimony. He did not want her to dampen the sense of unity and celebration around his nomination. That effort backfired when television news outlets replayed Ms. Hamer’s testimony during prime time when millions more could see it. The first video posted below summarizes the story of her testimony and the effort to suppress it.
Fannie Lou Hamer’s eight minute testimony is both historic and relevant 60 years later. It vividly reminds us of the price that people paid to register to vote and to participate in voter registration efforts not so long ago. It should also challenge us to be aware of and oppose any and all efforts to suppress voter registration today. Most of all, Fannie Lou Hamer’s life and witness compel us to continue the struggle for racial justice and to vote. The second video posted below is the full eight minute audio of Mrs. Hamer’s testimony at the 1964 DNC. Please take the time to listen and reflect on the words of this wonderful witness.