Yvette B Williams
  • Welcome
  • "On Blast" Blog
    • August 2015
  • My Story
    • Media
  • Online Voter Registration
  • Contact Me
  • 2020 Sanders Delegate

Welcome to 
"ON BLAST"

A digital news source for the culturally competent community, focusing on public policy and African American lifestyle With a global perspective. 

"If they don't give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair."      congresswoman shirley chisholm
                                                                             

"On Blast" Sign Up

Fannie Lou Hammer, Agent of Change

3/23/2016

0 Comments

 
The power of one voice can change a country.  Such was the case in 1964, when a Mississippi sharecropper, Fannie Lou Hamer took on the Democratic Party with an emotional speech at the Democratic National Convention.  Her voice was so powerful that President Lyndon B. Johnson attempted to silence her by planning a presidential press conference during her scheduled speech.  It did not work and news stations around the country rebroadcast her testimony… “Is this America, the land of the free and the home of the brave,” asked Hamer during the emotional speech. “Where we have to sleep with our telephones off of the hooks because our lives be threatened daily, because we want to live as decent human beings, in America?”
 
After suffering from a brutal police beating in a bogus arrest for registering to vote, Fannie Lou wanted Mississippi's all-white and anti-civil rights delegation to the Democratic National Convention, to represent all Mississippians.  She formed the Mississippi Freedom Democrat Party and drew national attention to the struggles of African Americans. Hamer challenged the party based on then Minneapolis Mayor, Hubert Humphrey’s 1948 championing of a more inclusive party that adopted a platform calling for equal opportunity in the military, workplace, and politics.  As a result, most southern Democrats abandoned the Democratic Party, forming their own conservative “Dixiecrats” party.
 
As a result of Hamer’s radio broadcast, the Credentials Committee received thousands of letters in support and phone calls to seat the Freedom Democrats.  President Johnson in an effort to resolve the problem during a heated election year, dispatched Vice President Hubert Humphrey.
 
Humphrey, often credited with pushing through the Voting Rights Act of 1965, asked for a compromise to which Hamer responded “Do you mean to tell me that your position is more important than four hundred thousand black people's lives? Senator Humphrey, I know lots of people in Mississippi who have lost their jobs trying to register to vote. I had to leave the plantation where I worked in Sunflower County, Mississippi. Now if you lose this job of Vice-President because you do what is right, because you help the MFDP, everything will be all right. God will take care of you. But if you take [the nomination] this way, why, you will never be able to do any good for civil rights, for poor people, for peace, or any of those things you talk about. Senator Humphrey, I'm going to pray to Jesus for you.”
 
The MFDP was finally seated at the 1968 convention, after the Democratic Party adopted a clause which demanded equality of representation from their states' delegations.  However, it wouldn’t be until 1972 before Fannie Lou Hamer would be elected as a national party delegate, where she received a thunderous standing ovation when she became the first African American to take her rightful seat as an official delegate at a national-party convention since the Reconstruction period after the Civil War.  Due to complications from hypertension and breast cancer, Fannie Lou Hamer passed away in 1977.  Her famous quote “I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired” is engraved in her tombstone.
 
During this presidential election cycle let’s remember the brave Fannie Lou Hamer’s of the world that demanded change and refused to remain “sick and tired of being sick and tired.”

Yvette Williams is a community advocate and Chair/Founder of the Clark County Black Caucus, a non-partisan community organization driven 100% by volunteer members registered to vote.  Follow her Blog at www.YvetteBWilliams.com and on twitter @YvetteBWilliams or contact her at ClarkCountyBlackCaucus@gmail.com for more information.

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Yvette Williams

    As a member of this vast global society, I hope to inform, inspire, and invoke positive change.

    Archives

    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015

    Categories

    All
    Black Electorate
    Education
    Elections

    RSS Feed

    If you believe in racial equality, the CCBC is the premier organization on the front lines of social justice. Consider a membership and support our efforts.
    Picture
    Yvette Williams is the Founder and Chair of the Clark County Black Caucus
Home
My Story
Hot Topics
Contact
Yvette Williams is a community advocate and believes one person can make a difference by speaking truth to power. Looking for like minded voices to post on this blog. For further discussion, please contact her.

Use of this Website constitutes acceptance of YvetteBWilliams.com Terms of Use & Privacy Policy
All Content © 2015 YvetteBWilliams.com