Until I am free : Fannie Lou Hamer's enduring message to America

Title:

Author:

Blain, Keisha N., 1985- author.

ISBN:

9780807061503

Physical Description:

xix, 181 pages, 4 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Contents:

A long fight ahead -- Let your light shine -- Tell it like it is -- We want leaders -- The special plight of black women -- An expansive vision of freedom -- Try to do something -- Until all of us are free.

Personal Subject:

Hamer, Fannie Lou.

Hamer, Fannie Lou-Influence.

Subject Term:

African American women civil rights workers -- Biography.

Civil rights workers -- United States -- Biography.

African Americans -- Civil rights -- History.

Civil rights movements -- United States -- History.

African Americans -- Civil rights -- Mississippi.

Genre:

Biographies.

Summary:

"Award-winning historian and New York Times best-selling author Keisha N. Blain situates Fannie Lou Hamer as a key political thinker alongside leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Rosa Parks and demonstrates how her ideas remain salient for a new generation of activists committed to dismantling systems of oppression in the United States and across the globe. Despite her limited material resources and the myriad challenges she endured as a Black woman living in poverty in Mississippi, Hamer committed herself to making a difference in the lives of others. She refused to be sidelined in the movement and refused to be intimidated by those of higher social status and with better jobs and education. In these pages, Hamer's words and ideas take center stage, allowing us all to hear the activist's voice and deeply engage her words, as though we had the privilege to sit right beside her. More than 40 years since Hamer's death in 1977, her words still speak truth to power, laying bare the faults in American society and offering valuable insights on how we might yet continue the fight to help the nation live up to its core ideals of "equality and justice for all."" --

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Hardwood Creek Library (Forest Lake)	323.092 BLA	Searching... Unknown
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury)	323.092 BLA	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

National Book Critics Circle 2021 Biography Finalist

53rd NAACP Image Award Nominee-Outstanding Literary Work - Biography/Autobiography

" A riveting and timely exploration of Hamer's life. . . . Brilliantly constructed to be both forward and backward looking, Blain's book functions simultaneously as a much needed history lesson and an indispensable guide for modern activists."- New York Times Book Review

Ms. Magazine "Most Anticipated Reads for the Rest of Us - 2021" KIRKUS STARRED REVIEW BOOKLIST STARRED REVIEW Publishers Weekly Big Indie Books of Fall 2021

Explores the Black activist's ideas and political strategies, highlighting their relevance for tackling modern social issues including voter suppression, police violence, and economic inequality.

"We have a long fight and this fight is not mine alone, but you are not free whether you are white or black, until I am free."
-Fannie Lou Hamer

A blend of social commentary, biography, and intellectual history, Until I Am Free is a manifesto for anyone committed to social justice. The book challenges us to listen to a working-poor and disabled Black woman activist and intellectual of the civil rights movement as we grapple with contemporary concerns around race, inequality, and social justice.

Award-winning historian and New York Times best-selling author Keisha N. Blain situates Fannie Lou Hamer as a key political thinker alongside leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Rosa Parks and demonstrates how her ideas remain salient for a new generation of activists committed to dismantling systems of oppression in the United States and across the globe.

Despite her limited material resources and the myriad challenges she endured as a Black woman living in poverty in Mississippi, Hamer committed herself to making a difference in the lives of others. She refused to be sidelined in the movement and refused to be intimidated by those of higher social status and with better jobs and education. In these pages, Hamer's words and ideas take center stage, allowing us all to hear the activist's voice and deeply engage her words, as though we had the privilege to sit right beside her.

More than 40 years since Hamer's death in 1977, her words still speak truth to power, laying bare the faults in American society and offering valuable insights on how we might yet continue the fight to help the nation live up to its core ideals of "equality and justice for all."

Includes a photo insert featuring Hamer at civil rights marches, participating in the Democratic National Convention, testifying before Congress, and more.

Author Notes

Keisha N. Blain, a 2022 Guggenheim Fellow, is an award-winning historian, professor, and writer. She is the author of the multi-prize-winning book 'Set the World on Fire' and co-editor, with Ibram X. Kendi, of the #1 New York Times bestseller 'Four Hundred Souls.' She is a Professor of Africana Studies and History at Brown University and a columnist for MSNBC. Follow her on Twitter @KeishaBlain and on Instagram @KeishaNBlain.

Reviews (3)

Kirkus Review

A celebration of the life of Fannie Lou Hamer (1917-1977), a disabled, working-class, Black civil rights activist whose legacy continues to influence the world's most groundbreaking movements for human rights. Hamer officially joined the civil rights movement in 1962, when, at the age of 44, she attended a rally organized by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in Ruleville, Mississippi. There, she learned that she had the right to vote, a revelation that inspired her to spend her life organizing for Black voting rights. Her work led not only to her imprisonment, but also verbal and physical abuse. Although she is best known for her electoral work, Hamer's vision for her people extended far beyond the ballot box. Toward the end of her life, Hamer founded Freedom Farm, a collective designed to alleviate food and housing insecurity among poor Black farmers in Mississippi. A prolific lecturer and vocal advocate for concrete action, Hamer based her theories and practices on her past experiences as a sharecropper. Having survived polio, poverty, and an unwanted hysterectomy, Hamer was supremely articulate about the ways in which racism, classism, and sexism have always devastatingly intersected in Black women's lives. Today, her legacy lives on through individuals ranging from Black Lives Matter co-founder Opal Tometi to Vice President Kamala Harris. Blain backs up her trenchant analysis with extensive research and relevant quotes from her subject. The scholarly text brims with heart, and the author's affection for Hamer infuses every line. Readers will walk away both informed and inspired. Then they should go seek out Kate Clifford Larson's Walk With Me (2021), a good companion read. A highly readable, poignant study of the life and influence of a civil rights legend. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

Born into a sharecropping family in Mississippi in 1917, Fannie Lou Hamer became a civil rights activist after learning she possessed the legal right to vote. Over the course of her life, she was a tireless advocate for the rights of poor and working class Black southerners, famously saying, "Nobody's free until everybody's free." History professor Blain (Set the World on Fire, 2018) explores Hamer's early life, burgeoning political activism, and impact on the civil rights movement in this vivid, passionate biography. Driven by her strong Christian faith and deep sense of justice, Hamer demanded that her fellow Black activists, the Democratic Party, and the U.S. as a whole make space for the voices of people like her. Over the course of her career, she traveled to Africa, ran for Senate against the infamously racist James Eastland of Mississippi, and founded a farming cooperative and "pig bank" to boost the economic power of poor Black Mississippians. Although Blain occasionally neglects to situate Hamer's ideas in the broader context of her time, the author's rightful and infectious admiration of Hamer shines through on every page. Until I Am Free is a must-have for readers interested in American history and civil rights activism.

Library Journal Review

Blain (history, Univ. of Pittsburgh; Set the World on Fire; Four Hundred Souls) blends biography with intellectual history to discuss Fannie Lou Hamer (1917--77), her instrumental civil rights activism, and her influence which resounds in the 21st century. Hamer was a grassroots organizer who came from a sharecropping background in Mississippi. Her main civil rights concerns were voter suppression and police brutality--the same battles being fought by contemporary Black Lives Matter activists. Blain uses extensive primary sources (including excerpts from Hamer's speeches, and accounts of her experiences of sexual assault and medical trauma) to illustrate how Hamer "turned her pain into political action." Blain effectively conveys the racism and sexism Hamer faced in her fight for equality and liberation and shows how it impacted her relationships to both the civil rights movement and the women's liberation movement; she also establishes the modernity and contemporary relevance of Hamer's proto-intersectional politics (Kimberlé Crenshaw would coin "intersectionality" in 1989). VERDICT This excellent introduction to Hamer and her life is well-contextualized; recommended for all readers.--Maria Bagshaw, Elgin Community Coll. Lib., IL

Introduction A Long Fight Ahead	p. ix
Chapter 1 Let Your Light Shine	p. 1
Chapter 2 Tell It Like It Is	p. 22
Chapter 3 We Want Leaders	p. 40
Chapter 4 The Special Plight of Black Women	p. 62
Chapter 5 An Expansive Vision of Freedom	p. 86
Chapter 6 Try to Do Something	p. 108
Conclusion Until All of Us Are Free	p. 128
Acknowledgments	p. 137
Notes	p. 139
Index	p. 170
Image Credits	p. 179

Available:*

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

Summary

Author Notes

Reviews (3)

Kirkus Review

Booklist Review

Library Journal Review

Table of Contents

Helpful Links

Research Links

Contact

Events and Rooms

Follow Us

Today's Hours