Fannie Lou Hamer (1917–1977) at a march in Mississippi

Fannie Lou Hamer’s story mirrored that of thousands of Black Mississippians, who lived under systemic racial oppression. After being viciously beaten and evicted from her home for attempting to register to vote, Hamer spent her life passionately speaking out against the voter suppression and state-sanctioned terrorism that affected Black people across the South. The photographer Danny Lyon captured her with fellow protestors in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, in 1964. Combining race, class, and gender analysis in her activism, Hamer espoused what can now be regarded as a Black feminist perspective with a humanist outlook: “We have a job as Black women to support whatever is right,” she maintained, “and to bring in justice where we’ve had so much injustice.” Long after her death, Hamer remained a role model for subsequent women’s organizations, including the progressive Women for Racial and Economic Equality.