Many tributes have been paid over the years to Fannie Lou Hamer (henceforth FLH) as a role model for the advancement of both civil rights and, to a lesser extent, gender equality. Increasingly, her powerful eloquence has been praised for the timeless values that still resonate in the contemporary world, just as much as they did when she first delivered her speeches, in the 15 years of activism running from her conversion to the cause of the Civil Rights Movement (henceforth CRM) in 1962 to her death in 1977. What has not emerged systematically enough, however, is a detailed investigation into the discourse skills she displayed (viz. in terms of the very special relationship she managed to build with her audiences) and through which she performed her fascinating, multi-faceted identity as “a sharecropper, a warrior, and a truth-telling prophet”. This chapter briefly discusses selected extracts from those speeches epitomising three aspects of FLH’s public identity: a) her life of abject poverty, hunger and exploitation as a sharecropper in the Mississippi Delta; b) her fearless, warrior-like political activism for the protection of freedom, equality and social inclusion of Black people against the backdrop of intimidation, suppression of voting rights and police violence; c) her role as a truth-telling lay preacher.
"To tell it like it is": Fannie Lou Hamer as a civil rights trailblazer
Vasta Nicoletta
2024-01-01
Abstract
Many tributes have been paid over the years to Fannie Lou Hamer (henceforth FLH) as a role model for the advancement of both civil rights and, to a lesser extent, gender equality. Increasingly, her powerful eloquence has been praised for the timeless values that still resonate in the contemporary world, just as much as they did when she first delivered her speeches, in the 15 years of activism running from her conversion to the cause of the Civil Rights Movement (henceforth CRM) in 1962 to her death in 1977. What has not emerged systematically enough, however, is a detailed investigation into the discourse skills she displayed (viz. in terms of the very special relationship she managed to build with her audiences) and through which she performed her fascinating, multi-faceted identity as “a sharecropper, a warrior, and a truth-telling prophet”. This chapter briefly discusses selected extracts from those speeches epitomising three aspects of FLH’s public identity: a) her life of abject poverty, hunger and exploitation as a sharecropper in the Mississippi Delta; b) her fearless, warrior-like political activism for the protection of freedom, equality and social inclusion of Black people against the backdrop of intimidation, suppression of voting rights and police violence; c) her role as a truth-telling lay preacher.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
