Fannie Was Not Alone: Two Other Women You Should

Fannie Was Not Alone: Two Other Women You

Should Know - An Introduction to the Fannie Lou Hamer, Speak on It! Study Guide By WILLA J. TAYLOR

Ella Baker appears alongside Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., and Frederick Douglass in a mural by Parris Stancell. “We Who Believe in Freedom Cannot Rest” by Tony Fischer / CC BY 2.0 A question: how many of you canon of American history, people we know of and learn had heard of Fannie Lou Ham- reduces the accomplishments about. With the exception er before picking up this study of many to the names of a fa- of a few – Ida B. Wells, Rosa guide? mous few. But ordinary, every- Parks, Coretta Scott King – day people, yesterday as well their contributions have been You are certainly excused if as today, are the force that relegated to the footnotes you hadn’t. Time has not served drives change. and the margins. her well. Even though she was a powerful force in the move- Women – and especially As we celebrate and upment for civil rights and the women of color – have often lift the story of Fannie Lou fight to win voting rights for been left out of the larger Hamer with Cheryl L. West’s Blacks, she does not figure narratives of the fights for beautifully rendered Fannie prominently in most textbooks. justice, and that makes it easy Lou Hamer, Speak On It!, it The reductivist nature of media, to assume that historic events seems appropriate that we and the woefully incomplete are shaped solely by the also center the contributions 2

of other women whose fierce activism and organizing helped shape the struggle for justice and equality. The women of the Civil Rights Movement in the 50s and 60s – like those in the fight for equity and justice today – understood the intersectional nature of the struggle for liberation and worked tirelessly within, and against, the patriarchal constraints of their time to build a blueprint for movement building that stands today.

Of course there are women whose names were never recorded, the women who made the sandwiches and set up the chairs for meetings, who cleaned the churches before and after meetings, who opened their homes to activists during Jim Crow; women who walked the picket lines and sat Goodman Theatre Walter Director of Education and Engagement, Willa J. Taylor at lunch counters and boycot- as famous as Malcolm’s and who had been spearheading ted busses; who organized their Martin’s and Rosa’s. As you sit-ins across the South. This friends and family, who took explore the life and activism convening at Shaw University, the notes and recorded the of Fannie Lou Hamer, here are her alma mater, was the beminutes; who made the flyers two of her contemporaries ginning of SNCC (pronounced and created the phone trees to that you should also know. “snick”), the Student Nonvioget the word out in a world be- lent Coordinating Committee. fore cell phones, social media, Ella Baker was Executive Sec- Baker recognized that young and 24-hour news cycles. retary of the Southern Chris- people were (as they are now) tian Leadership Conference the hope of any movement. There are also the women when she brought together whose contributions should be young Black college activists Baker believed that voting “The reductivist nature of fight for freedom. She helped organize the Freedom Summedia, and the woefully mer of 1964, which focused national attention on the fight incomplete canon of to register Black voters in Mississippi and Alabama; and the American history, reduces the Freedom Rides of 1961, which challenged segregation in the accomplishments of many to South. the names of a famous few. “ A granddaughter of slaves, Baker spent most of her life in 3 rights were one key tool in the

“Like many of the women to run her off the road. When they caught up to her Oldleading the fight for justice smobile at a stop sign and noticed she was riding in the today, their names should be car with a Black man, they shot directly at her, hitting her better known to all of us who twice in the head. She died at the scene. seek a more equitable and These women were at the just world. It is up to us all to forefront of the struggle for human rights and liberty for speak their names...“ Black people. Like many of the women leading the fight been active organizing prothe struggle for Black liberation protestors (including future should be better known to all and played major roles in three Congressman John Lewis) be- of us who seek a more equiof the most influential civil ing beaten and tear gassed by table and just world. It is up rights groups: the National As- state troopers on the Edmund to us all to speak their names, sociation for the Advancement Pettus Bridge, Liuzzo wanted learn of their contributions, of Colored People (NAACP), to have a bigger impact on and remember that it is not the Southern Christian Lead- the larger movement. She left just the famous who can ership Conference (SCLC), and her husband and children to make a difference. Each of us the Student Nonviolent Coordi- drive from her home in Mich- has the power to change the nating Committee (SNCC). Even igan to join the protestors. world. though those organizations After two aborted march atwere headed by men, it was tempts, Martin Luther King Jr. Baker’s incredible tenacity and and John Lewis were planning organizing prowess that recruit- a third march from Selma to ed everyday citizens, many of Montgomery, the capital of whom had been brutalized and Alabama, to confront Goverterrorized, to join the struggle nor George Wallace. Working and demand the basic human with local organizers with the rights they deserved. Southern Christian Leadership Viola Liuzzo was one of the teered to support march ormany white allies who fought ganizers by recruiting volunfor civil rights in the South teers, providing first aid, and during the violent and turbu- transporting marchers in her lent 1960s. A member of the car to and from bus terminals NAACP in Detroit, Liuzzo had and train stations. Committee, Liuzzo voluntests for civil rights in Michigan On March 25th, 1965, Liuzwhen the television coverage zo was ferrying marchers of the Bloody Sunday march in between Montgomery and Alabama spurred her to travel Selma, after they had successsouth. fully reached the state capital, when a car of Klansman for justice today, their names Horrified by those black-and- (including an FBI informant) white images of peaceful began following her, trying 4