Fannie Lou Hamer and Stacey Abrams, two women who have made and are making great strides as activists and political leaders.
A civil and voting rights activist, Hamer led volunteers to the courthouse to register to vote in 1962, but they were denied their right due to an unjust literacy test. As a co-founder of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, Hamer made it her mission to put an end to voting discrimination. She even helped organize the Freedom Summer in 1964, bringing together college students of all races to support African American voting rights in a segregated South. After being barred from running for the Mississippi House of Representatives, it wasn’t until 1968 that Hamer became a member of Mississippi’s first integrated delegation. Hamer traveled many places, speaking out about civil rights, and in 1971 she founded the National Women’s Political Caucus.
Hamer’s modern-day counterpart, Stacey Abrams is another Black woman in politics who is taking a stand and speaking out on behalf of African American rights.
An American politician, Abrams is a lawyer who served in the Georgia House of Representatives and as its minority leader. A voting rights activist and New York Times best-selling author, she is the first African American woman to not only deliver a response to the State of the Union address but also to run as the major-party gubernational nominee in the Georgia governor’s race. She ran as the Democratic candidate for the 2018 race and won more votes than any Democrat in state history. Abrams’ list of accomplishments includes increasing voter turnout in Georgia for the 2020 presidential election and for the state’s 2020-21 U.S. Senate election and special election. Abrams was nominated for a 2021 Nobel Peace Prize and has created many organizations in her pursuit of justice.
