Latest Fannie Lou Hamer Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• Actually, the world and America is upset and the only way to bring about a change is to upset it more.

  Fannie Lou Hamer

  America, Upset, World

  Source: www.encyclopedia.com

• I believe in Christianity because the Scriptures said: "The things that have been done in the dark will be known on the house tops."

  Fannie Lou Hamer

  Believe, Dark, House

  Source: www.encyclopedia.com

• The only thing I really feel is necessary is that the black people, not only in Mississippi, will have to actually upset this applecart. What I mean by that is, so many things are under the cover that will have to be swept out and shown to this whole world, not just to America. This thing they say of "the land of the free and the home of the brave" is all on paper. It doesn't really mean anything to us. The only way we can make this thing a reality in America is to do all we can to destroy this system and bring this out to the light that has been under the cover all these years.

  Fannie Lou Hamer

  Mean, Home, Reality

  Source: www.encyclopedia.com

• I saw in Chicago, on the street where I was visiting my sister-in-law, this "Urban Renewal" and it means one thing: "Negro removal." But they want to tear the homes down and put a parking lot there. Where are those people going? Where will they go? And as soon as Negroes take to the street demonstrating, one hears people say, "they shouldn't have done it." The world is looking at America and it is really beginning to show up for what it is really like. "Go Tell It on the Mountain." We can no longer ignore this, that America is not "the land of the free and the home of the brave."

  Fannie Lou Hamer

  Home, Mean, Sister In Law

  Source: www.encyclopedia.com

• I see so many ways America uses to rob Negroes and it is sinful and America can't keep holding on, and doing these things.

  Fannie Lou Hamer

  America, Use, Way

  Source: www.encyclopedia.com

• It is our right to stay here and we will stay and stand up for what belongs to us as American citizens, because they can't say that we haven't had patience.

  Fannie Lou Hamer

  Citizens, American Citizens, Havens

  Source: www.encyclopedia.com

• I saw how the Government was run there [in Africa] and I saw where black people were running the banks. I saw, for the first time in my life, a black stewardess walking through a plane and that was quite an inspiration for me.

  Fannie Lou Hamer

  Running, Inspiration, Government

  Source: www.encyclopedia.com

• I was treated much better in Africa than I was treated in America. And you see, often I get letters like this: "Go back to Africa."

  Fannie Lou Hamer

  America, Letters, Treated

  Source: www.encyclopedia.com

• I have just as much right to stay in America - in fact, the black people have contributed more to America than any other race, because our kids have fought here for what was called "democracy"; our mothers and fathers were sold and bought here for a price. So all I can say when they say "go back to Africa," I say "when you send the Chinese back to China, the Italians back to Italy, etc., and you get on that Mayflower from whence you came, and give the Indians their land back, who really would be here at home?"

  Fannie Lou Hamer

  Mother, Father, Home

  Source: www.encyclopedia.com

• I don't know about the press, but I know in the town where I live everybody was aware that I was in Africa, because I remember after I got back some of the people told me that Mayor Dura of our town said he just wished they would boil me in tar.

  Fannie Lou Hamer

  People, Towns, Remember

  Source: www.encyclopedia.com

• I think there will be great leaders emerging from the State of Mississippi. The people that have the experience to know and the people not interested in letting somebody pat you on the back and tell us "I think it is right." And it is very important for us not to accept a compromise and after I got back to Mississippi, people there said it was the most important step that had been taken.

  Fannie Lou Hamer

  Taken, Thinking, People

  Source: www.encyclopedia.com

• Actually since the Convention I have gotten so many letters that I have tried to answer but every letter said they thought this decision, not to accept the compromise, was so important. There wasn't one letter I have gotten so far that said we should have accepted the compromise - not one.

  Fannie Lou Hamer

  Should Have, Decision, Important

  Source: www.encyclopedia.com

• In coming to Atlantic City, we believed strongly that we were right. In fact, it was just right for us to come to challenge the seating of the regular Democratic Party from Mississippi. But we didn't think when we got there that we would meet people, that actually the other leaders of the Movement would differ with what we felt was right.

  Fannie Lou Hamer

  Party, Thinking, Cities

  Source: www.encyclopedia.com

• In fact, one day I was going to Jackson and I saw a huge sign that U.S. Senator John Stennis was speaking that night for the White Citizens Council in Yazoo City and they also have a State Charter that they may set up for "private schools." It is no secret.

  Fannie Lou Hamer

  School, Night, Cities

  Source: www.encyclopedia.com

• I do remember, one time, a man came to me after the students began to work in Mississippi and he said the white people were getting tired and they were getting tense and anything might happen. Well, I asked him "how long he thinks we had been getting tired"? I have been tired for 46 years and my parents was tired before me and their parents were tired, and I have always wanted to do something that would help some of the things I would see going on among Negroes that I didn't like and I don't like now.

  Fannie Lou Hamer

  Tired, Men, Thinking

  Source: www.encyclopedia.com

• You know the Scripture says "be not deceived for God is not mocked; whatsoever a man sow that shall he also reap." And one day, I don't know how they're going to get it, but they're going to get some of it back. They are scared to death and are more afraid now than we are.

  Fannie Lou Hamer

  Men, One Day, Scripture

  Source: www.encyclopedia.com

• Hate won't only destroy us. It will destroy these people that's hating as well.

  Fannie Lou Hamer

  Hate, People, Wells

  Source: www.encyclopedia.com

• Some things I found out in the National Convention I wasn't too glad I did find out. But we will work hard, and it was important to actually really bring this out to the open, the things I will say some people knew about and some people didn't; this stuff that has been kept under the cover for so many years. Actually, the world and America is upset and the only way to bring about a change is to upset it more.

  Fannie Lou Hamer

  Hard Work, Years, America

  Source: www.encyclopedia.com

• The Mississippi is not the only river. There's the Tallahatchie and the Big Black. People have been put in the river year after year, these things been happening.

  Fannie Lou Hamer

  Years, Rivers, People

  Source: www.encyclopedia.com

• The people at home will work hard and actually all of them think it was important that we hade the decision that we did make not to compromise; because we didn't have anything to compromise for.

  Fannie Lou Hamer

  Hard Work, Home, Thinking

  Source: www.encyclopedia.com

• You can tell this by the program the federal government had to train 2,400 tractor drivers. They would have trained Negro and white together, but this man, Congressman Jamie Whitten, voted against it and everything that was decent. So, we've got to have somebody in Washington who is concerned about the people of Mississippi.

  Fannie Lou Hamer

  Men, White, People

  Source: www.encyclopedia.com

• After we testified before the Credentials Committee in Atlantic City, their Mississippi representative testified also. He said I got 600 votes but when they made the count in Mississippi, I was told I had 388 votes. So actually it is no telling how many votes I actually got.

  Fannie Lou Hamer

  Cities, Atlantic City, Vote

  Source: www.encyclopedia.com

• The only thing we took out was the Constitution of the State of Mississippi and the interpretation of the Constitution. We had 63,000 people registered on the Freedom Registration form. And we tried from every level to go into the regular Democratic Party medium. We tried from the precinct level. The 16th of June when they were holding precinct meetings all across the state, I was there and there was eight of us there to attend the meeting, and they had the door locked at 10 o'clock in the morning. This is what's happening in the State of Mississippi.

  Fannie Lou Hamer

  Morning, Party, June

  Source: www.encyclopedia.com

• The 20th of March in 1964, I went before the Secretary of State to qualify to run as an official candidate for Congress from the 2nd Congressional District, and it was easier for me to qualify to run than it was for me to pass the literacy test to be a registered voter. And we had four people to qualify and run in the June primary election be we didn't have enough Negroes registered in Mississippi.

  Fannie Lou Hamer

  Running, June, People

  Source: www.encyclopedia.com

• I used to question this for years - what did our kids actually fight for? They would go in the service and go through all of that and come right out to be drowned in a river in Mississippi. I found this hypocrisy is all over America.

  Fannie Lou Hamer

  Kids, Fighting, Years

  Source: www.encyclopedia.com