Educational Media Reviews Online

Fannie Lou Hamer became a civil rights activist by chance and influenced the events that led to African Americans being able to vote. Her words at the Democratic National Convention in 1964, reached through the television and were heard by Lyndon Johnson. Her words of being threatened and beaten by whites was the first time, for many, of how blacks were being treated in the south. Fearing heightened racial tensions, she and others were barred from the convention. Hamer worked with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee to recruit and educate potential voters. She is an overlooked figure in history and this documentary is a concise biography of how a poor sharecropper's daughter spoke out and became part of our nations’ civil rights movement.

This is an essential part of a visual representation of the Civil Rights Movement. It provides primary source material for the study of voting rights and the civil rights era. It also lends itself to the study of how music played an important role in the movement. Suitable for teens as well as adults.