Fannie Lou Hamer
Object Details
- Artist
- Charmian Reading, 1930 - 2014
- Sitter
- Fannie Lou Hamer, 6 Oct 1917 - 15 Mar 1977
- Exhibition Label
- The Nineteenth Amendment granted white American women the right to vote, but it did not remove racist Jim Crow laws that sought to obstruct African American civil rights through targeted literacy tests and other barriers. In 1962, Fannie Lou Hamer and seventeen other aspiring Black voters went to the courthouse in Indianola, Mississippi, to register. When Hamer’s white employer and landlord learned of her action, he threatened to fire her and evict her if she did not retract her registration. She refused to do so, and she and her family were put out of their home. In 1964, Hamer founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and gained national attention for her eloquent, televised testimony before the credentials committee of the 1964 Democratic National Convention. Her speech galvanized President Lyndon B. Johnson to sign the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Only then were African Americans finally guaranteed the right to vote without impediment.
- La Enmienda XIX otorgó el voto a las mujeres blancas estadounidenses, pero no eliminó las leyes racistas “Jim Crow”, destinadas a obstruir los derechos civiles de los afroamericanos con pruebas de alfabetismo y otras barreras para ellos. En 1962, Fannie Lou Hamer y otros 17 votantes potenciales fueron a inscribirse al tribunal de Indianola, Misisipi. Cuando su empleador y casero blanco se enteró, amenazó con despedirla y echarla de la casa si no se retractaba. Ella rehusó, y fue expulsada de su hogar junto con su familia. En 1964 Hamer fundó el Partido Demócrata por la Libertad de Misisipi y acaparó la atención nacional con su elocuente testimonio televisado ante el comité de credenciales de la Convención Nacional Demócrata. Sus palabras impulsaron al presidente Lyndon B. Johnson a firmar la Ley de Derecho al Voto en 1965. No fue hasta entonces que los afroamericanos tuvieron por fin garantizado el derecho a votar sin impedimentos.
- Credit Line
- National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
- 1966
- Object number
- NPG.94.248
- Restrictions & Rights
- Usage conditions apply
- Copyright
- © Family of Charmian Reading
- Type
- Photograph
- Medium
- Gelatin silver print
- Dimensions
- Image: 25.7 x 34cm (10 1/8 x 13 3/8")
- Sheet: 27.9 x 35.2cm (11 x 13 7/8")
- Mat: 55.9 x 71.1cm (22 x 28")
- Place
- United States\Mississippi
- See more items in
- National Portrait Gallery Collection
- Location
- Currently not on view
- National Portrait Gallery
- Topic
- Costume\Headgear\Hat
- Exterior
- Fannie Lou Hamer: Female
- Fannie Lou Hamer: Social Welfare and Reform\Reformer\Social reformer\Civil rights activist\Civil rights leader
- Fannie Lou Hamer: Business and Finance\Natural resources commerce\Agriculturist\Farmer\Sharecropper
- Portrait
- Record ID
- npg_NPG.94.248
- Metadata Usage (text)
- Usage conditions apply
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/sm4ef3117d3-68a6-4dd0-8ae9-1982b35683d5
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