CHICAGO — How much do you really know about civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer?
In these pandemic years, her story has been told on the Goodman Theatre stage and in Chicago parks by way of Chicago-born playwright Cheryl L. West and historian Keisha Blain, a fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University, who authored the book “Until I Am Free: Fannie Lou Hamer’s Enduring Message to America.”
Both writers share the story of Hamer, who died in 1977 and didn’t come to activism until her 40s, centering her voice on voting and women’s rights. The Mississippi sharecropper endured assaults, co-founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (or Freedom Democratic Party), and went to the 1964 Democratic National Convention to demand Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party delegates be seated in the convention, rather than the all-white Mississippi Democratic Party delegates. The move drew national attention to the plight of Blacks in the South. (Filmmaker Christine Swanson, Oscar-nominated actress Aunjanue Ellis, and DePaul University students filmed the short film “Fannie” at Cinespace Studios in October 2021. Ellis plays Hamer giving her testimony in front of the Democratic National Convention Credentials Committee Aug. 22, 1964.)
