Hope Captured in Pictures

Black History Month: February 15 – Fannie Lou Hamer

Fannie Lou Hamer, Songs My Mother Taught Me

---

In celebration of Black History Month, this week I’m sharing the stories behind some of my favorite pictures of the Black experience that encourage me to keep practicing hope. 

Peace & Blessings,
Marcie Alvis-Walker

---

INVOCATION

Spirit, be merciful as we endeavor to possess a great and radiant hope. We open our doors to you. 

---

STORY

The story of Fannie Lou Hamer is the story of so many Black women I knew growing up – a series of hard losses brought about by absurd miscarriages of justice that they managed to entwine with a perpetual hope that future generations would have it much better than they did. 

For me, Hamer was more than a civil rights icon: she was a testament to what it meant to be fully human with equal parts joy and suffering. She was robbed of motherhood, yet she gave herself to motherhood. This land pilfered her body and its labor, yet she labored and willingly gave her body to this land. The swift winds of hate constantly blew at her door, yet she kept her door open to the winds of love. 

Hamer’s adopted daughter, Jacqueline Hamer Flakes, gave her the most glowing tributes in several interviews: 

We went to Fayette, Mississippi once when I was little, and there was a large crowd. Mama was just over five feet tall. But listening to her, you would think that she was a giant. The way she talked about the city of Ruleville, what she had gone through, the people that she helped and what others from different states were doing to help the Mississippi Delta residents. Just hearing her speak made my heart proud to just know that she was my mom…

I can remember her just sitting around peeling apples or pears. We had a four-car garage at the time, but there were never any cars parked there. There was always clothes, food and cases and cases of preserves that she would can. We had deep freezers with soup and other foods that she had put away for the winter. My dad raised hogs and my uncles in Kilmichael had cows, so we always had meat and, she just gave to people. I think that’s why I have a caring spirit, because being around her, you couldn’t help but want to give and give freely. It’s like she said, ‘God gave it us. He blesses us so we can bless others. And he gets the glory from it.’

At a 1964 rally at the Williams Institutional CME Church in Harlem NY, Fannie Lou Hamer famously said, “I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired.” But even though she was indeed sick and tired, Hamer practiced hope as the daughter of enslaved parents, a wife of a sharecropper, a viciously sterilized woman who became a mother, adopting two motherless daughters, and as a visionary who created one of the first successful co-op community farms. 

Sometimes hope rides on the waves of constant sorrow and loss. And sometimes, hope lies in the remains of the joys that are salvaged from the wreckage. Fannie Lou Hamer’s life bled both kinds of hope. 

---

CANTICLE  

Fannie Lou Hamer Singing This Little Light of Mine
from Songs My Mother Taught Me

This little light of mine,
I’m gonna let it shine. 

This little light of mine,
I’m gonna let it shine. 

This little light of mine,
I’m gonna let it shine.
Let it shine.
Let it shine. 
Let it shine. 

Everywhere I go, Lord,
I’m gonna let it shine. 

Everywhere I go, Lord, 
I’m gonna let it shine. 

Everywhere I go, Lord, 
I’m gonna let it shine. 
Let it shine.
Let it shine.
Let it shine. 

I’ve got the light of freedom, 
I’m gonna let it shine. 

I’ve got the light of freedom,
I’m gonna let it shine. 

I’ve got the light of freedom, 
I’m gonna let it shine. 
Let it shine. 
Let it shine. 
Let it shine. 

Jesus gave it me, now,
I’m gonna let it shine. 

Jesus gave it me, now,
I’m gonna let it shine.

Jesus gave it me, now,
I’m gonna let it shine.
Let it shine. 
Let it shine. 
Let it shine. 

Shine! Shine! Shine! Shine! 
I’m gonna let it shine.

Shine! Shine! Shine! Shine! 
I’m gonna let it shine.

Shine! Shine! Shine! Shine! 
I’m gonna let it shine.
Let it shine. 
Let it shine. 
Let it shine.

All in the jailhouse,
I’m gonna let it shine. 

All in the jailhouse,
I’m gonna let it shine.

All in the jailhouse,
I’m gonna let it shine.
Let it shine. 
Let it shine. 
Let it shine.

This little light of mine,
I’m gonna let it shine. 

This little light of mine,
I’m gonna let it shine. 

This little light of mine,
I’m gonna let it shine.
Let it shine.
Let it shine. 
Let it shine.