was born Fannie Lou Townsend on October 6,1917 in Montgomery County, Mississippi to Lou Ella and Jim Townsend .She was the youngest of 20 children. Both of her parents were sharecroppers which are tenant farmers who give a part of each crop as rent. For six years she got play in her mother and father's fields but when she turned 6 her playful, carefree life was over. Hamer started …show more content…
According to Bio.com she said "They kicked me off the plantation, they set me free. It's the best thing that could happen. Now I can work for my people." Hamer got a new job on the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee or SNCC as a field organizer. The SNCC is a group of African-American students who participated in acts of civil disobedience to fight racial segregation and injustice in the South. Many of the whites were angry with their acts and often responded with violence. Hamer was threatened, arrested, beaten, and shot at because of her job. She was critically wounded in 1963 in a Winona, Mississippi jail. Hamer and two other activists went to jail after attending a training workshop .Hamer was overpowered by officers and suffered from permanent kidney