America ReFramed

Fannie Lou Hamer's America

Season 10  Episode 1

“Is this America, the land of the free and the home of the brave?” With those words at the 1964 Democratic Convention, Fannie Lou Hamer changed the course of Civil Rights forever. By working in the cotton fields of Mississippi from the age of six, Fannie Lou Hamer was keenly aware of the racial injustices that forced her family to labor so much while earning so little. Encouraged by her participation in groups like the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Fannie Lou Hamer devoted herself to voter enfranchisement and increasing Black political representation. Her efforts would mobilize thousands of Black people to register to vote and inspire her historical run for Senate.

Fannie Lou Hamer's America explores and celebrates the lesser-known life of a Mississippi sharecropper-turned-human-rights-activist and one of the Civil Rights Movement’s greatest leaders. Through the layering of audio recordings and archival video footage of her powerful speeches, soul-stirring songs and impassioned pleas for equal rights, Fannie Lou Hamer tells her extraordinary story in her own words.

Winner, 38th IDA Documentary Awards, Best TV Feature Documentary or Mini-Series. Winner, 29th Vision Awards - The National Association for Multi-ethnicity in Communications, Documentary.

 

FINDING YOUR VOICE THROUGH FANNIE LOU HAMER

Academy Award® nominee Aunjanue Ellis, writer and historian Keisha N. Blain, executive producer and Mrs. Hamer's great-niece Monica Land, and director Joy Davenport in conversation about what the current generation of social justice warriors can learn from Fannie Lou Hamer's example. Moderated by Erika Dilday, Executive Producer of America ReFramed. Watch the recorded event!