Fannie Lou Hamer (1917 - 1977)
Hamer grew up working on B.D. Marlowe's plantation. She was one of the only workers who could read or write, having gone to school until the age of 12. In 1961, as a part of the Mississippi appendectomy, the forced sterilization of African Americans to curb the population, Hammer received a hysterectomy without her consent. It was done while she was undergoing surgery from a white doctor to remove a uterine tumor. Later on, she began to fight for her right to vote, only to be fired for it. So she, her husband, and their two adoptive daughters moved from Montgomery to Ruville. There, she co-founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, challenging the current Democratic Party's efforts to block out black citizens. While politicians did their best to block her out, this wasn't effective in stopping her messages from spreading. Hamer later started the Freedom Farm Cooperative where she bought 640 acres of land for black people to farm and cultivate wealth and built up 200 units of housing there. She eventually died of breast cancer at 59.
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