Fannie was the youngest of twenty children and the granddaughter of a slave. Both her parents worked as sharecroppers in Mississippi. In the 20th century, sharecropping was a deal that was agreed between the landowners and plantation workers. The workers would work on the land, and in return, they were allowed to take shelter on it. The profits of harvested crops were split on a fifty-fifty basis between the landowners and workers. In Fannie’s time, the landowners were supposed to pay for seed, fertilizer and other planting necessities, but in most cases, the workers had to fork out the dough from their own meager pockets. It was not a very fair scheme for the workers, but that was just a tiny speck on the pages of their hardship.
As a young African-American girl, Fannie had lived a hard life. Although she had polio, she worked the cotton fields alongside her parents when she was six. She dropped out of school to support her family full time. It was probably her exposure to a tough childhood that led her to become a sturdy woman in the future. She experienced discrimination from strangers and even policemen for the same reason: being black.
This is the true story of Fannie Lou Hamer, an important figure in the civilization of American History. Hate crimes have been launched at her from various angles, and as ironic as it may seem, the discriminations have been the main reason she stepped out and took charge. The popular belief of hate crimes is that they push victims behind the wall of confidence, into the zone of depression. However, in some notable cases such as Fannie’s, hate crimes had the opposite effect.
Hate crimes can spur a new sense of justice and integrity among African-Americans, causing them to climb up the walls of confidence and take charge of their rights.
Fannie’s family had suffered in the hands of discrimination, and Fannie was determined to change the future for herself and for others like her. That was why she left her hometown to register to vote. Unfortunately, she was arrested for being on the wrong bus because that bus was meant for whites only. The plantation owner even warned her to stop trying to register to vote, or she would have to get off the plantation. She chose the latter. Not long after that, the house she was staying in for temporary shelter was shot at sixteen times by strangers on motorbikes. The bullets were obviously intended for Fannie.
When she was arrested another time for being on the wrong bus again due to her skin color, she was badly abused by the policemen. They ordered prisoners to beat her up, then they took the pleasure in torturing her violently themselves. She was a polio victim, and that only made it worse. The hate crimes they projected upon her frail body left her with severe wounds and a blot clot in her eye, which eventually affected her vision. Although she had suffered so much, Fannie did not raise the white flag and surrender to the injustice that she and the other African-Americans were given.
The beatings only increased her determination to fight for her rights. She pressed on to help discover the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party which challenged the all-white Mississippi Delegation. She succeeded in helping many other African-Americans to own plantations and profit fairly. Her fortitude also led the Democrats to allow African-Americans to vote, and President Lyndon Johnson certified the Voting Rights Act a year later.
She was not a woman who gave into fate; maybe she even refused to believe that her fate was to be undermined by the superior race of America. Many African-Americans have lived under the roof of oppression for a long time. Fannie Lou Hamer was not the only notable African-American who stepped out of that zone, being forced to do so because her tolerance of hate crimes against her and her people had reached its limit.
There were many other important figures in America such as Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, W.E.B. Dubois, Mary McLeod Bethune and many more who were all sparked to do something about their situation for the benefit of their kind because of the amount of injustice they were shown. All of them shared three things in common – they were African-Americans, they had been discriminated, and they were courageous to use their painful experiences to instigate civil rights movements for their people.
The effect of hate crimes can be reflected in the case of beating a little boy as a form of punishment. You beat a little boy for every wrongdoing of his, and he will come to fear the strike of the rod for a start. But keep doing it and he will become immune to it. The pain does not scare him anymore. He will still continue to do what he wants, knowing the consequences, because he has reached a point where the rod is just a mere stick.
Hate crimes can have that sort of effect on people. Years of humiliation and resentment have birthed determination for a new beginning. Instead of killing their spirits, hate crimes can actually cause them to become stronger, more unified and that is how African-Americans have risen up beyond their state of oblivion to become a notified people in their respective fields.
Written for my English assignment due Monday.
I'm still thinking of a suitable title for this one.
I'm still thinking of a suitable title for this one.
