Fannie Lou Hamer was an African-American voting and women’s rights activist, and a leader in the civil rights movement. She was the co-founder and vice-chair of the Freedom Democratic Party, which she represented at the 1964 Democratic National Convention. Inspirational Fannie Lou Hamer quotes will make you feel ready to take on anything and encourage you to stand for what you believe in.
If you’re searching for wise quotes by prominent activists that perfectly capture what you’d like to say or just want to feel inspired yourself, browse through an amazing collection of famous David Walker quotes, powerful Marcus Garvey quotes, and Dolores Huerta quotes.
Most Famous Fannie Lou Hamer Quotes
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
Whether you have a Ph. D. or no D. we’re in this bag together. Fannie Lou Hamer
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. Fannie Lou Hamer
I don’t want equal rights with the white man; if I did, I’d be a thief and a murderer. 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
If I am truly free, who can tell me how much of my freedom I can have today? Fannie Lou Hamer
Nobody’s free until everybody’s free. Fannie Lou Hamer
When they asked for those to raise their hands who’d go down to the courthouse the next day, I raised mine. Had it high up as I could get it. I guess if I’d had any sense I’d’ve been a little scared, but what was the point of being scared? The only thing they could do to me was kill me and it seemed like they’d been trying to do that a little bit at a time ever since I could remember. Fannie Lou Hamer
Never to forget where we came from and always praise the bridges that carried us over. 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
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
I will never forget, one day when I was six years old and I was playing beside the road and this plantation owner drove up to me and stopped and asked me, could I pick cotton. I told him I didn’t know and he said, Yes, you can. I will give you things that you want from the commissary store, and he named things like crackerjacks and sardines and it was a huge list that he called off. So I picked the 30 pounds of cotton that week, but I found out what actually happened was he was trapping me into beginning the work I was to keep doing and I never did get out of his debt again. My parents tried so hard to do what they could to keep us in school, but school didn’t last four months out of the year and most of the time we didn’t have clothes to wear. 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
Nobody’s free until everybody’s free. 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
Every red stripe in that flag represents the black man’s blood that has been shed. Fannie Lou Hamer
I am sick and tired of being sick and tired. Fannie Lou Hamer
Sometimes it seems 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. Fannie Lou Hamer
Black people know what white people mean when they say law and order. Fannie Lou Hamer
Is this America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, where we have to sleep with our telephones off of the hooks because our lives be threatened daily, because we want to live as decent human beings, in America? 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
Y’all is nice. You must be Christian people. Fannie Lou Hamer
I have just as much right to stay in America in fact, the black people have contributed more to America than any other race, because our kids have fought here for what was called democracy; our mothers and fathers were sold and bought here for a price. So all I can say when they say go back to Africa, I say when you send the Chinese back to China, the Italians back to Italy, etc., and you get on that Mayflower from whence you came, and give the Indians their land back, who really would be here at home? Fannie Lou Hamer
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
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. Fannie Lou Hamer
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. 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
There is one thing you have got to learn about our movement. Three people are better than no people. Fannie Lou Hamer
If I am truly free, who can tell me how much of my freedom I can have today? Fannie Lou Hamer
People have got to get together and work together. I’m tired of the kind of oppression that white people have inflicted on us and are still trying to inflict. Fannie Lou Hamer
Righteousness exalts a nation. Hate just makes people miserable. 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
It’s time for America to get right. 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
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. It doesn’t really mean anything to us. The only way we can make this thing a reality in America is to do all we can to destroy this system and bring this out to the light that has been under the cover all these years. 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
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
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. Fannie Lou Hamer
Hate won’t only destroy us. It will destroy these people that’s hating as well. Fannie Lou Hamer
To support whatever is right, and to bring justice where we’ve had so much injustice. Fannie Lou Hamer
You don’t have to like everybody, but you have to love everybody. 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
When I liberate others, I liberate myself. Fannie Lou Hamer
I’m showing the people that a Negro can run for office. 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
What I’m trying to point out now is when you take a very close look at this American society, it’s time to question these things. Fannie Lou Hamer
If this is a Great Society, I’d hate to see a bad one. Fannie Lou Hamer
That’s why I want to change Mississippi. You don’t run away from problems you just face them. Fannie Lou Hamer
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. 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
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
The type of education that we get in the state of Mississippi will make our minds so narrow it won’t coordinate with our big bodies. Fannie Lou Hamer
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. Fannie Lou Hamer
We didn’t come all this way for no two seats when all of us is tired. 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
We want ours, and we want ours now. 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
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
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
And I have walked through the shadows of death because it was on the tenth of September in 62 when they shot sixteen times in a house and it wasn’t a foot over the bed where my head was. Fannie Lou Hamer
To support whatever is right, and to bring in justice where weve had so much injustice. Fannie Lou Hamer
When I liberate others, I liberate myself. 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
I might not live two hours after I get back home, but I want to be a part of setting our people free in Mississippi. Fannie Lou Hamer
We didnt come all this way for no two seats when all of us is tired. Fannie Lou Hamer
The type of education that we get in the state of Mississippi will make our minds so narrow it won’t coordinate with our big bodies. Fannie Lou Hamer
I saw in Chicago, on the street where I was visiting my sister in law, this Urban Renewal and it means one thing Negro removal. But they want to tear the homes down and put a parking lot there. Where are those people going? Where will they go? And as soon as Negroes take to the street demonstrating, one hears people say, they shouldn’t have done it. The world is looking at America and it is really beginning to show up for what it is really like. Go Tell It on the Mountain. We can no longer ignore this, that America is not the land of the free and the home of the brave. Fannie Lou Hamer
What I’m trying to point out now is when you take a very close look at this American society, it’s time to question these things. Fannie Lou Hamer
I remember, and I will never forget, one day I was six years old and I was playing beside the road and this plantation owner drove up to me and stopped and asked me could I pick some cotton. I told him I didn’t know and he said, Yes, you can. I will give you things that you want from the commissary store, and he named a huge list that he called off. I picked the 30 pounds of cotton that week, but I found out what actually happened was he was trapping me into beginning the work I was to keep doing and I never did get out of his debt again. Fannie Lou Hamer
All of this is on account we want to register to become first class citizens, and if the Freedom Democratic Party is not seated now, I question America. Fannie Lou Hamer
A black woman’s body was never hers alone. Fannie Lou Hamer
One day, I know the struggle will change. 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
Because a house divided against itself cannot stand and today America is divided against itself because they don’t want us to have even the ballot here in Mississippi. Fannie Lou Hamer
People have got to get together and work together. I’m tired of the kind of oppression that white people have inflicted on us and are still trying to inflict. Fannie Lou Hamer
If you don’t speak out ain’t nobody going to speak out for you. 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
To support whatever is right, and to bring in justice where we’ve had so much injustice. 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
I go to the big city, and with the kind of education they give us in Mississippi, I got problems. Fannie Lou Hamer
My father did get enough money to buy mules. We didn’t have tractors, but he bought mules, wagons, cultivators and some farming equipment. As soon as he bought that and decided to rent some land, because it was always better if you rent the land, but as soon as he got the mules and wagons and everything, somebody went to our trough a white man who didn’t live very far from us and he fed the mules Paris Green, put it in their food and it killed the mules and our cows. Fannie Lou Hamer
We didn’t come all this way for no two seats when all of us is tired. Fannie Lou Hamer
I am determined to get every Negro in the state of Mississippi registered. Fannie Lou Hamer
Eighteen hundred and seventy, the Fifteenth Amendment was added on to the Constitution of the United States that gave every man a chance to vote for what he think to be the right way. 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
If this is a great society, I’d hate to see a bad one. 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
I was forced away from the plantation because I wouldn’t go back and withdraw, you know, my literacy test after I had tried to take it. I wouldn’t go back. Fannie Lou Hamer
I do remember, one time, a man came to me after the students began to work in Mississippi and he said the white people were getting tired and they were getting tense and anything might happen. Well, I asked him how long he thinks we had been getting tired? I have been tired for 46 years and my parents was tired before me and their parents were tired, and I have always wanted to do something that would help some of the things I would see going on among Negroes that I didn’t like and I don’t like now. Fannie Lou Hamer
We want a change in this society in America because, you see, we can no longer ignore the facts. 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
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
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
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
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 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
There is one thing you have got to learn about our movement. Three people are better than no people. 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 see if you are professional and if you are a nonprofessional, if you are not giving service to your fellow man, well, you can be as fancy dressed as you want to be, but just don’t go to church because it’s no good. Because we are our brother’s keper. 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
For three hundred and more years they have had time, and now it is time for them to listen. 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
I know lots of people in Mississippi who have lost their jobs trying to register to vote. 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
This thing they say of the land of the free and the home of the brave is all on paper. 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
We have in Sunflower County fourteen hundred children that we were able to get out of the ghettos, out of the country, and most of these children had never seen a commode in their lives. 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
