Statue of Fannie Lou Hamer unveiled in Mississippi

Monica Land – theGRIO NBC News – Friday, 12 October 2012 (originally published 11 Oct)

Fannie Lou Hamer talking young girls and women outside her home in 1964

Fannie Lou Hamer, center, chats with Heather Booth, left, and others outside her Ruleville, Miss., home during the summer in 1964. Hamer was a leader in organizing both the Freedom Summer and the Mississippi Democratic Freedom Party. / Gannett File

MISSISSIPPI, United States: Scores of men, women and children attended the recent unveiling of a statue honoring the late civil rights icon Fannie Lou Hamer in her hometown of Ruleville, Miss.

Hamer, who would have been 95 on Oct. 6, is remembered the world over as a woman who was “sick and tired of being sick and tired.”

At the time of her death, on March 14th, 1977, Hamer was almost penniless, yet her funeral was well attended by celebrities, social activists and political leaders from all walks of life.

Mississippi State Senator Willie Simmons, who attended the unveiling ceremony and Hamer’s funeral in 1977, spoke of the lasting impression Hamer had on all she met . . .

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