In church, she fell in love with singing and the power of music to communicate, unify, and overcome adversity. Hamer continued her education independently of the system by being a diligent student of the Bible. Though her schooling was limited-African Americans at the time attended segregated schools that were only in session four months of the year- Ms. Hamer sought respite from the grueling workdays of her youth by throwing herself into her education and her faith. Hamer and her mother would often sing songs that expressed the unyielding difficulties of labor, and reflected a desire for a better life. Hamer was a sharecropper’s child, picking cotton as early as age six. Watch Fannie Lou Hamer’s 1964 Congressional Testimony:īorn during the Great Migration of the early 1900s, American civil rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer (1917-1977) grew up in an era when rights for blacks and women were being contested. President Barack Obama listed Hamer among those key to the movement in his speech in Selma earlier this year. This concert celebrates Hamer’s life and participation in the marches at Selma, Alabama, 50 years ago.
Worth it song fanniel free#
Listen to selections from Songs My Mother Taught Me here.Ĭoinciding with this release, the 2015 Smithsonian Folklife Festival will present a special free concert in tribute to Hamer (date and performers TBA-check for details). On this album, listeners will hear her powerful voice singing with the same passion. She is best-known for her sharp-witted speeches, having coined the phrase “I’m just sick and tired of being sick and tired” in her testimony before the Credentials Committee at the 1964 Democratic Convention in Atlantic City, NJ.
This album, featuring 1965 interview with Hamer by Julius Lester and new liner notes by folklorist Mark Puryear, is the only known publicly available recording of Hamer singing. It also includes monologues from Hamer about her difficult childhood and her experiences as an early leader of the American Civil Rights Movement. The compilation features raw recordings of Hamer singing spirituals, many of which became civil rights anthems, both alone and with a congregation of vocalists. On June 30, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings will release Fannie Lou Hamer’s Songs My Mother Taught Me, based on a rare, limited-edition 1963 recording of the inspirational civil rights activist. Fannie Lou Hamer's Songs My Mother Taught Me Conveys Trials And Tribulations Of Civil Rights Movement Through Songs (June 30 Via Smithsonian Folkways)