Our annual Fannie Lou Hamer Celebration is just around the corner, and to understand the importance and depth of impact felt by this amazing woman, we’ve decided to focus upon her 1968 testimony before the credentials committee at the Democratic Party’s convention.
Hamer sat before the party’s credentials committee and with television cameras rolling delivered an emotional speech, telling the world what it was like for African Americans trying to be “first-class citizens” in Mississippi.
This was such an important and highly contentious event, that President Lyndon Johnson attempted to divert press coverage of Hamer’s testimony by staging a last minute press conference that television stations would air instead of broadcasting her statement. This backfired, however, as many TV networks aired her speech on their late news programs as well as throughout the following days. The following clip was taken from American Experience on PBS:
Below is audio of Fannie Lou Hamer’s full testimony. It is powerful, disturbing, deeply insightful, and just as relevant today as it was then.
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