Remembering Fannie Lou Hamer

As Congress remembers Fannie Lou Hamer, a Mississippi Delta civil rights hero, by naming the Voting Rights Act reauthorization bill for her, it is well to remember how this ingenious woman so angered the Sovereignty Commission.

Here are only a handful of the Commission's many Hamer links:

-- Full page photos of Hamer and convention delegates

-- Sovereignty Commission director, Erle Johnston, pledges to "exploit" Hamer's "Communist" ties (without tying in the Commission).

-- 12-page list of SNCC Staff Directory names, including Hamer

-- Affadavit to state Supreme Court signed by Indianola attorney, Oscar Townsend, stating he received notification "purporting to be a precinct meeting" of Sunflower County Democrats electing Hamer and others as delegates to the national convention. Letter was from Hamer.

-- In 1965 Fannie Lou Hamer files suit in federal court seeking an injunction to prevent city of Ruleville's upcoming elections. according to investigator's report.

-- 3/18/67 Clipping. Mrs. Hamer's National Guardian interview on Sunflower County elections

-- "Proposed editorial" for the Jackson Daily News linking Hamer (along with attorneys William Kunstler and Arthur Kinoy) to the Communist Party

-- Fanny Lou Hamer's name on "secret" SNCC list (across from Stokely Carmichael)

-- "Restricted" report lists challengers of DNC delegates

-- 1968 Washington, D.C. Post Herald Times feature on Fannie Lou Hamer, "Nobody Knows the Trouble She's Seen"