The 19th: “Sixty years ago this week, Hamer gave a speech ahead of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) that helped shift the conversation around race and representative democracy in America.
It was August 22, 1964, and Hamer was addressing the credentials committee of the DNC in Atlantic City, New Jersey, when she delivered brief but powerful remarks on voter suppression and white supremacist violence in Mississippi. Hamer was representing the newly created Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, which was trying to replace the all-White state delegation at the convention.
“All of this is on account of we want to register to become first-class citizens,” Hamer said in her steadfast voice. “And if the Freedom Democratic Party is not seated now, I question America. Is this America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, where we have to sleep with our telephones off of the hook because our lives be threatened daily, because we want to live as decent human beings, in America?”…
Speakers at this year’s Democratic National Convention — where Vice President Kamala Harris is set to make history as the first woman of color to accept a major party’s presidential nomination — noted Hamer’s impact.
Family, friends and organizers in Hamer’s home state of Mississippi reflect today on the work that remains.”