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The
heroines
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Annie
Devine
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 “And
I say, America you need to think about your soul.”
Annie Devine was an insurance executive turned Civil Rights
worker who was instrumental in increasing voter registration
for black Mississippians in the Canton, Mississippi area.
She was a co-founder of the Mississippi
Freedom Democratic Party whose objective was to be recognized
as delegates at the 1964 Democratic Convention.
When she, along with Fannie Lou Hamer and Victoria Gray Adams,
initiated the Congressional
Challenge, they became the first black women to be seated
on the Floor of the House of Representatives. Their mission
was to unseat the Mississippi congressmen who they claimed
were elected illegally because of discriminatory voting practices.
They were unable to do that, but successfully put pressure
on President
Johnson to pass the groundbreaking Voting
Rights Act of 1965. Annie Devine graduated from Tougaloo
College and was a longtime volunteer in the Head
Start program. |
Victoria
Gray Adams
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Victoria Gray Adams grew up in Mississippi, but had
opportunities to live outside the state. She decided if she
could live differently in other parts of this country, she
should be able to live that way in Mississippi.
“I'm choosing to stay here and fight for the opportunity
to be able to live in Mississippi as well as I can anywhere
else.”
This businesswoman became a SNCC field secretary and played
a key role in voter registration drives. She became co-founder
of the Mississippi
Freedom Democratic Party which challenged the Democrats
and President
Johnson at the 1964 convention. She was also part of the
Congressional
Challenge, where she, Fannie Lou Hamer and Annie Devine
became the first black women to be seated on the Floor of
the House of Representatives to plead their case about the
election abuses in their state. She was also the first woman
to run for the U.S. Senate from the state of Mississippi.
She continues her political activism to this day with community
service. Her motto is, "Life shrinks or expands in direct
proportion to the courage with which we live it." |
Fannie
Lou Hamer
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“I am sick and tired, of being sick and
tired.”
The youngest of 20 children, Fannie Lou Hamer, rose from the
servitude of a sharecropper
to become one of the best known grassroots leaders in the
state. Her powerful singing voice inspired many and was known
for singing “This Little Light of Mine.” She lost
her job and home when she went to register to vote; and she
was brutally beaten in jail for attempting to integrate a
lunch counter at the Winona bus station.
Her most nationally recognized moment as a Civil Rights leader
came in 1964 when a speech she made was televised during the
Democratic National Convention. A co-founder of the Mississippi
Freedom Democratic Party, she testified before the credentials
committee and asked the searing question “Is this America?”
where she and others like her had to live in fear because
of their quest for freedom. In a controversial move, President
Johnson pre-empted the speech to divert attention away from
her, but the nation heard her words that night when all the
networks rebroadcast her powerful speech.
In 1965, she teamed with Victoria Gray Adams and Annie Devine
for the Congressional
Challenge. They attempted to unseat five Mississippi congressmen,
who were unfairly elected because eligible black voters were
systematically denied the right to register and vote.
A national leader and a local inspiration, she continued her
activism with projects like the Freedom Farm Cooperative in
which 5,000 people were able to grow their own food and own
680 acres of land. She also worked on issues such as school
desegregation, child day-care, and low-income housing until
her death in 1977 at the age of 59. |
Quotes from
other women about Fannie Lou Hamer:
“Her mission was to love yourself enough… to take this
chance so that we can get this freedom… I started feeling
like I could do anything.”
“I'm amazed at how she put fear in the hearts of powerful
people like Lyndon B. Johnson.”
“Fannie Lou Hamer made me realize that we’re nothing
unless we can hold this system accountable and the way we hold this
system accountable is to vote and to take an active note to determine
who our leaders are.”
| --Constance
Slaughter-Harvey |
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"I
was willing to die for this."
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