Tue. Feb. 22 at 9 p.m. on WKAR-HD 23.1 & STREAMING | Explore and celebrate the life of a fearless Mississippi sharecropper turned human rights activist.
Told through public speeches, interviews, powerful songs, never-before-seen family photos and archival footage, the program is a unique portrait of the life and legacy of Fannie Lou Hamer.
One of the Civil Rights Movement’s greatest leaders, Hamer was a fearless Mississippi-born sharecropper whose harrowing encounters with injustice propelled her into leadership in the fight for voting rights.
She was most known for delivering an iconic, heart-wrenching testimony before the 1964 Democratic National Convention’s Credentials Committee. As significant as Hamer’s 1964 DNC speech was and is, her testimony is but one moment within the activist's career that spanned nearly 15 years and took place before audiences—in every region of the country.
One of the movement’s pre-eminent orators, Hamer used stories from her own life to call America to account for the racism that defined every aspect of her existence—from the turn-of-the-century cotton plantations of the Mississippi Delta where she was reared, to her death in an all-black hospital in 1977.
MORE ABOUT AMERICA REFRAMED:
America ReFramed brings to life compelling stories, personal voices and experiences that illuminate the contours of our ever-changing country. Since 2012, the series has premiered 170 films - more than half helmed by female makers and a third credited to BIPOC makers - centering stories of the LGBTQ community, people with disabilities, the formerly incarcerated, veterans, immigrants and more.