Fannie Lou Hamer, a civil rights activist, was born October 6, 1917, in Montgomery County, Mississippi. In 1962, when Hamer was 44 years old, SNCC volunteers came to town and held a voter registration meeting. She and others were surprised to learn that African-Americans actually had a constitutional right to vote. When the SNCC members asked for volunteers to go to the courthouse to register to vote, Hamer was the first to raise her hand. This was a dangerous decision. She later reflected, "The only thing they could do to me was to kill me, and it seemed like they'd been trying to do that a little bit at a time ever since I could remember." She also said she was "sick and tired of being sick and tired. When Hamer and others went to the courthouse, they were jailed and beaten. She became a SNCC field secretary and traveled around the country speaking and registering people to vote.
Hamer co-founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP). In 1964, the MDFP challenged the all-white Mississippi delegation to the Democratic National Convention. Hamer spoke in front of the Credentials Committee in a televised event that reached millions of viewers. She told the committee how African-Americans in many states across the country were prevented from voting through illegal tests, taxes and intimidation. As a result of her speech, two delegates of the MFDP were given speaking rights at the convention. She helped bring many blacks to fight for the struggle of the civil rights movement.