FANNIE By Cheryl L. West ©2017
EXCERPT A one-woman play with music featuring civil rights activist, Fannie Lou Hamer.
Fannie takes a deep breath, then delivers her speech in the ‘house’ microphone. FANNIE “We gotta long fight ahead and this fight is not mine alone. I’m not just fighting for myself and for the black race, but I’m fighting for the whites; I’m fighting for the Indians; I’m fighting for the Mexicans; I’m fighting for the Chinese. I’m fighting for anybody and everybody need freedom. It’s either going to be the ballot or the bullet. Racism is going to be dealt with by the men in government or by the men with guns. I prefer government but I got a few loaded pistols in my house and best believe to protect mine, I will shoot you.
Don’t get me wrong, I agree with the late Dr. Martin Luther King’s non violent approach, but I’m getting more like these young militants coming up.
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Which is another thing. The press always wanna ask me what I think about the Black Panther party. I turn it around and ask them what you think of the ku klux klan? ‘ “Course they don’t wanna talk about none of that but what I do know for sure, every shut eye ain’t sleep and ev’ry smile ain’t genuine. But trust in what’s right is right and that’s the side you wanna be on!
SONG #12 FANNIE But even through your pain, you gotta keep going. We tried again and again to get on ballots to run as candidates. Every which way we turned we ran into a brick wall. She retrieves yet another sign DEFEND THE VOTE. All we ever wanted was to participate in our own government and to bring attention to the violence and to the folks who’ve been murdered just because they wanted to vote. You think there’s been one conviction or anybody been sent to jail? Nope. When we speak up about what is right, then we stand the chance at night of being dynamited in your own home.
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How can we call this a free country when I am afraid to go to sleep in my own house, that I can be shot in my place of worship, or my kids handcuffed in they schools. That a sheriff can stop me on the road and shoot me dead and call it self defense when I ain’t raised nan hand. And ladies an’ gentleman, know that if violence can be visited upon me, it can be visited upon you.
FANNIE They told us a hundred years or so ago that we were free, (music intro) FANNIE But seem to me if we are a free people, then how you gon’ tell me how much of my freedom I’m supposed to have.
SONG #13 - CERTAINLY LORD FANNIE/BAND DO YOU WANT YOUR FREEDOM? (CERTAINLY, LORD.)DO YOU WANT YOUR FREEDOM?
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(CERTAINLY, LORD.)DO YOU WANT YOUR FREEDOM? CERTAINLY, CERTAINLY, CERTAINLY LORD. I want every bit of what’s mine, not some token. I don’t want a taste now and maybe another taste a hundred years from now and that’s if you in a good mood! FANNIE/BAND DO YOU HATE SEGREGATION CERTAINLY LORD DO YOU HATE SEGREGATION CERTAINLY LORD DO YOU HATE SEGREGATION CERTAINLY, CERTAINLY, CERTAINLY LORD.
ELEVEN And then the President came up with his grand idea - a war on poverty! More like war on poor people. See all them people working for freedom, marching or showing up to vote, well they was losing their jobs left and right. Folks could barely feed their children. Hard to ask people to stand up and keep fighting when they about to keel over from starvation.
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People don’t realize, if your belly empty, your soul gon’ eventually follow. So I saw a need and then me and some other good people figured out how to fill it. DO YOU WANNA FEED THE HUNGRY CERTAINLY LORD DO YOU WANNA FEED THE HUNGRY CERTAINLY LORD DO YOU WANNA FEED THE HUNGRY CERTAINLY, CERTAINLY, CERTAINLY LORD. She retrieves a hoe and puts on a sun hat. FANNIE We founded Freedom Farms in 1969, all on donations from all the speeches I done around the country. And celebrity donations, like from my good friend Harry Belefonte. You should see it. I’m a brag a little ‘cause I be out here, too, when I can, helping to plant and harvest. Mimes hoeing throughout the next. Band sings softly under. FANNIE We got beans, and peas, okra, potatoes, a little pig farm to grow our own pork.
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Plus we started a head start program for the kids, a garment factory and tool bank and low income housing. FANNIE/BAND/ AUDIENCE DO YOU WANNA HELP OUR PEOPLE DO YOU WANNA HELP OUR PEOPLE CERTAINLY LORD DO YOU WANNA HELP OUR PEOPLE CERTAINLY, CERTAINLY, CERTAINLY LORD. Underscoring continues We've been able to help thousands of people. They ain’t been all black but they been all been poor, nitty gritty folks, which means they all been malnourished in some way. A beat - the next is hard for her. My daughter, Dorothy, was malnourished... I couldn’t get a doctor for her so I had to watch my own child hemorrhage. By the time we drove the 119 miles to Gadsden hospital it was too late. My daughter died and left two little girls and a husband. Doctor said the cause was related to malnutrition. Dorothy was only twenty two years old. Here I was trying to feed thousands and I couldn’t even feed my own child enough.
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You try not to question God but I sho’ had to question myself....Had I been too busy crusadin’, traveling and tending to everybody else’s problems that I didn’t see...? (A freighted beat of grief) Yeah, losing Dorothy Jean justa ‘bout killed me. I swear it did. That’s all I got to say about that. TWELVE Underscoring - Woody Guthrie’s “THIS LAND.” PROJECTION - FLYER OF SENATE CANDIDATE FANNIE LOU HAMER. She looks over at the projection, smiles. Not a bad picture if I say so myself. Well, on the 28th day of January 1971, my house was bombed. And that’s the reason, folks, I’ll be running for state senator. And next year maybe U.S Senator. It’s my third attempt but nothing beats a failure but a try. I been crisscrossing the state, with supporters like Betty Friedan and my SNCC friends John Lewis and Julian Bond. She crosses to the lectern.
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FANNIE My speeches come from the heart but this one is especially from the heart because it’s for you who took the journey with me today. It’s my bid for election. You done gotten to know me so you be the judge if it says what I need to be saying ‘cause I’m speaking for you, too. She takes a deep breath, then delivers her speech in the ‘house’ microphone. FANNIE “We gotta long fight ahead and this fight is not mine alone. I’m not just fighting for myself and for the black race, but I’m fighting for the whites; I’m fighting for the Indians; I’m fighting for the Mexicans; I’m fighting for the Chinese. I’m fighting for anybody and everybody need freedom. It’s either going to be the ballot or the bullet. Racism is going to be dealt with by the men in government or by the men with guns. I prefer government but I got a few loaded pistols in my house and best believe to protect mine, I will shoot you. Don’t get me wrong, I agree with the late Dr. Martin Luther King’s non violent approach, but I’m getting more like these young militants coming up.
9.
Which is another thing. The press always wanna ask me what I think about the Black Panther party. I turn it around and ask them what you think of the ku klux klan? ‘ “Course they don’t wanna talk about none of that but what I do know for sure, every shut eye ain’t sleep and ev’ry smile ain’t genuine. But trust in what’s right is right and that’s the side you wanna be on! Anyway, what I really wanna talk about are the inroads we’ve made. I’m proud to say on this day in 1972, we’ve elected 91 black people to office in Mississippi. Yes, suh, we turning the tide and voting in our own leaders. When Johnson signed the voting right act in ‘65, less than 7 percent of Mississippi blacks were registered to vote. Now the number has jumped to nearly 70 percent. I told you, it’s time out for other people choosing our leaders, time to un-vote the okedoke. I been all over the country, spoken at so many universities I’ve lost count - But there’s one thing I hope Black America remembers, it don’t make you superior just cause you get a few letters behind your name. You can’t never forget where you come from or those you left behind.
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Don’t be so bourgeoisie that you can’t praise the bridges that carried you over ‘cause a lotta people died so all of us could live better. And white America. A house divided cannot stand, a nation divided cannot stand either. I’m praying that you learn to love before you teach every black and brown person to hate ‘cause I’m tellin’ you that will be a sad day. If I told you tonight I hate you, I’d be lying because I see what hate has done to your people and I know God ain’t in that. No doubt in my mind that your freedom is shackled in chains to mine. Until I am free, you are not free either. If we could all leave here tonight believing that, then my trip here will not be in vain. END OF EXCERPT