84+ Fannie Lou Hamer Quotes On Voting, Justice And Empowering

Fannie Lou Hamer was an American civil rights activist and voting rights activist. She was a leader in the civil rights movement in Mississippi during the 1960s, and was especially known for her work in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. She was a powerful voice for African American voting rights and civil rights, and her legacy continues to inspire people today. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Fannie Lou Hamer on voting, justice, leadership.

Top 10 Fannie Lou Hamer Quotes

1. Nobody's free until everybody's free.
2. I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.
3. Never to forget where we came from and always praise the bridges that carried us over.
4. With the people, for the people, by the people. I crack up when I hear it; I say, with the handful, for the handful, by the handful, cause that's what really happens.
5. Black people know what white people mean when they say “law and order”.
6. Righteousness exalts a nation. Hate just makes people miserable.
7. Sometimes it seem like to tell the truth today is to run the risk of being killed. But if I fall, I'll fall five feet four inches forward in the fight for freedom. I'm not backing off.
8. One day I know the struggle will change. There's got to be a change-not only for Mississippi, not only for the people in the United States, but people all over the world.
9. This white man who is saying "it takes time." For three hundred and more years they have had "time," and now it is time for them to listen.
10. If this is a Great Society, I'd hate to see a bad one.

Fannie Lou Hamer Image Quotes

I am sick and tired of being sick and tired. — Fannie Lou Hamer

Righteousness exalts a nation. Hate just makes people miserable. — Fannie Lou Hamer

If this is a Great Society, I'd hate to see a bad one. — Fannie Lou Hamer

Fannie Lou Hamer Short Quotes

• if I fall, I will fall five-feet four-inches forward in the fight for freedom.
• I am determined to get every Negro in the state of Mississippi registered.
• It's time for America to get right.
• When I liberate others, I liberate myself.
• You don't have to like everybody, but you have to love everybody.
• We didnt come all this way for no two seats when all of us is tired.
• A black woman's body was never hers alone.
• I was in jail when Medgar Evers was murdered and nothing, I mean nothing has been done about that.
• To support whatever is right, and to bring in justice where weve had so much injustice.
• If I am truly free, who can tell me how much of my freedom I can have today?

Fannie Lou Hamer Quotes About People

Christianity is being concerned about [others], not building a million-dollar church while people are starving right around the corner. Christ was a revolutionary person, out there where it was happening. That's what God is all about, and that's where I get my strength. — Fannie Lou Hamer

It would bring tears in your eyes to make you think of all those years, the type of brain-washing that this man will use in America to keep us separated from our own people. — Fannie Lou Hamer

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

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

Our foreparents were mostly brought from West Africa. We were brought to America and our foreparents were sold; white people bo ught them; white people changed their names my maiden name is supposed to be Townsend, but really, what is my maiden name? What is my name? — Fannie Lou Hamer

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

These people in Mississippi State, they are not "down"; all they need is a chance. And I am determined to give my part not for what the Movement can do for me, but what I can do for the Movement to bring about a change in the State of Mississippi. — Fannie Lou Hamer

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

We serve God by serving our fellow man; kids are suffering from malnutrition. People are going to the fields hungry. If you are a Christian, we are tired of being mistreated. — Fannie Lou Hamer

I met one child there eleven years old, speaking three languages [in Guinea]. He could speak English, French and Malinke. Speaking my language actually better than I could. And this hypocrisy - they tell us here in America [ that black people can't be intelligent]. — Fannie Lou Hamer

Fannie Lou Hamer Famous Quotes And Sayings

I am sick and tired of being sick and tired. — Fannie Lou Hamer

Righteousness exalts a nation. Hate just makes people miserable. — Fannie Lou Hamer

I guess if I'd had any sense, I'd have been a little scared [to register to vote] - but what was the point of being scared? The only thing they could do was kill me, and it kinda seemed like they'd been trying to do that a little bit at a time since I could remember. — Fannie Lou Hamer

If this is a Great Society, I'd hate to see a bad one. — Fannie Lou Hamer

It is only when we speak what is right that we stand a chance at night of being blown to bits in our homes. Can we call this a free country, when I am afraid to go to sleep in my own home in Mississippi?... I might not live two hours after I get back home, but I want to be a part of setting the Negro free in Mississippi. — Fannie Lou Hamer

[On her Freedom Farm Cooperative:] If you give a hungry man food, he will eat it. [But] if you give him land, he will grow his own food. — Fannie Lou Hamer

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

My mother was a great woman. To look at her from the suffering she had gone through to bring us up - 20 children: 6 girls and 14 boys, but still she taught us to be decent and to respect ourselves, and that is one of the things that has kept me going, even after she passed. — Fannie Lou Hamer

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

The methods used to take human lives, such as abortion, the pill, the ring, etc., amounts to genocide. I believe that legal abortion is legal murder. — Fannie Lou Hamer

My parents would make huge crops of sometimes 55 to 60 bales of cotton. Being from a big family where there were 20 children, it wasn't too hard to pick that much cotton. But my father, year after year, didn't get too much money and I remember he just kept going. — Fannie Lou Hamer

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

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

You know I'm not hung up on this liberating myself from the "black" man - I'm not going to try that thing. — Fannie Lou Hamer

My mother got down sick in 53 and she lived with me, an invalid, until she passed away in 1961. And during the time she was staying with me sometime I would be worked so hard I couldn't sleep at night. — Fannie Lou Hamer

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

... some of my people could have been left [in Africa] and are living there. And I can't understand them and they don't know me and I don't know them because all we had was taken away from us. And I became kind of angry; I felt the anger of why this had to happen to us. We were so stripped and robbed of our background, we wind up with nothing. — Fannie Lou Hamer

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

This problem is not only in Mississippi. During the time I was in the Convention in Atlantic City, I didn't get any threats from Mississippi. The threatening letters were from Philadelphia, Chicago and other big cities. — Fannie Lou Hamer

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. — Fannie Lou Hamer

just because people are fat, it doesn't mean they are well fed. The cheapest foods are the fattening ones, not the most nourishing. — Fannie Lou Hamer

I always said if I lived to get grown and had a chance, I was going to try to get something for my mother and I was going to do something for the black man of the South if it would cost my life; I was determined to see that things were changed. — Fannie Lou Hamer

All of this is on account we want to register [sic], to become first-class citizens, and if the Freedom Democratic Party is not seated now, I question America. Is this America, the land of the free and the home of the brave where we have to sleep with our telephones off the hooks because our lives be threatened daily because we want to live as decent human beings - in America? — Fannie Lou Hamer

You know what really made me sick? I was in Washington, D.C. at another time reading in a paper where the U.S. gives Byron de la Beckwith - the man who is charged with murdering Medgar Evers - they were giving him so much money for some land and I ask "Is this America?" We can no longer ignore the fact that America is NOT the "land of the free and the home of the brave." — Fannie Lou Hamer

There is one thing you have got to learn about our movement. Three people are better than no people. — Fannie Lou Hamer

We have to build our own power. We have to win every single political office we can, where we have a majority of black people... The question for black people is not, when is the white man going to give us our rights, or when is he going to give us good education for our children, or when is he going to give us jobs-if the white man gives you anything-just remember when he gets ready he will take it right back. We have to take for ourselves. — Fannie Lou Hamer

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

Hate won't only destroy us. It will destroy these people that's hating as well. — Fannie Lou Hamer

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

America that is divided against itself cannot stand, and we cannot say we have all of this unity they say we have when black people are being discriminated against in every city in America I have visited. — Fannie Lou Hamer

I feel sorry for anybody that could let hate wrap them up. Ain't no such thing as I can hate anybody and hope to see God's face. — Fannie Lou Hamer

Actually, the world and America is upset and the only way to bring about a change is to upset it more. — Fannie Lou Hamer

We didn't come all the way up here to compromise for no more than we’d gotten here. We didn't come all this way for no two seats, 'cause all of us is tired. — Fannie Lou Hamer

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

You can pray until you faint, but unless you get up and try to do something, God is not going to put it in your lap. — Fannie Lou Hamer

We have been listening year after year to [white people] and what have we got? We are not even allowed to think for ourselves. "I know what is best for you," but they don't know what is best for us! It is time now to let them know what they owe us, and they owe us a great deal. — Fannie Lou Hamer

When I liberate myself, I liberate others. If you don't speak out ain't nobody going to speak out for you. — Fannie Lou Hamer

I got pictures of us and they would draw big red rings around us and tell what they thought of us. I got a letter said, "I have been shot three times throught the heart. I hope I see your second act." But this white man who wants to stay white, and to think for the Negro, he is not only destroying the Negro, he is destroying himself, because a house divided against itself cannot stand and that same thing applies to America. — Fannie Lou Hamer

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

My parents tried so hard to do what they could to keep us in school, but school didn't last but four months out of the year and most of the time we didn't have clothes to wear. — Fannie Lou Hamer

When I got on that plane, it was loaded with white people going to Africa for the Peace Corps. I got there and met a lot of them, and actually they had more peace there in Guinea than I have here. I talked to some of them. I told them before they would be able to clean up somebody else's house you would have to clean up yours; before they can tell somebody else how to run their country, why don't they do something here. — Fannie Lou Hamer

A white man killed the mules and our cows that knocked us right back down. And things got so tough then I began to wish I was white. — Fannie Lou Hamer

Whether you have a Ph.D., or no D, we're in this bag together. And whether you're from Morehouse or Nohouse, we're still in this bag together. Not to fight to try to liberate ourselves from the men - this is another trick to get us fighting among ourselves - but to work together with the black man, then we will have a better chance to just act as human beings, and to be treated as human beings in our sick society. — Fannie Lou Hamer

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

I would like to talk about some of the things that happened that made me know that there was something wrong in the south from a child. — Fannie Lou Hamer

Not only have we paid the price with our names in ink, but we have also paid in blood. And they can't say that black people can't be intelligent, because going back to Africa, in Guinea, there are almost 4 million people there and what he, President [Sekou] Toure, is doing to educate the people: as long as the French people had it they weren't doing a thing that is being done now. — Fannie Lou Hamer

We are here to work side-by-side with this "black" man in trying to bring liberation to all our people! — Fannie Lou Hamer

The President of Guinea, Sekou Toure, came to see us on the 13th. Now you know, I don't know how you can compare this by me being able to see a President of a country when I have just been there two days; and here I have been in America, born in America, and I am 46 years pleading with the President for the last two to three years to just give us a chance-and this President in Guinea recognized us enough to talk to us. — Fannie Lou Hamer

White Americans today don't know what in the world to do because when they put us behind them, that's where they made their mistake... they put us behind them, and we watched every move they made. — Fannie Lou Hamer

I went almost naked to see that my mother was kept decent and treated as a human being for the first time in all of her life. — Fannie Lou Hamer

[My mother] tried so hard to make life easy for us. Those are the things that forced me to try to do something different and when this Movement came to Mississippi I still feel it is one of the greatest things that ever happened because only a person living in the State of Mississippi knows what it is like to suffer; knows what it is like to be hungry; knows what it is like to have no clothing to wear. — Fannie Lou Hamer

No. What would I look like fighting for equality with the white man? I don't want to go down that low. I want the true democracy that'll raise me and that white man up raise America up. — Fannie Lou Hamer

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

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

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

But you see now baby, whether you have a ph.d., d.d. or no d, we're in this bag together. And whether you are from Morehouse or Nohouse, we,re still in this bag together. — Fannie Lou Hamer

Actually, some of the things I experienced as a child still linger on; what the white man has done to the black people in the south! — Fannie Lou Hamer

Life Lessons by Fannie Lou Hamer

Fannie Lou Hamer was an American civil rights activist who fought for voting rights and racial justice. She taught us to stand up for what we believe in and to never give up despite the obstacles. Her courage and resilience in the face of adversity serve as an inspiration to us all to fight for justice and equality.