Quote

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

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Fannie Lou Hamer
Age: 59 †
Born: 1917
Born: October 6
Died: 1977
Died: March 14
Autobiographer
Political Leader
Politician
Montgomery County
Mississippi
Fannie Lou Townsend
Political
Four
Backing
Truth
Five
Inches
Seems
Religious
Killed
Today
Fighting
Forward
Sometimes
Freedom
Seem
Like
Fall
Fight
Running
Risk
Tell
Feet

More quotes by Fannie Lou Hamer

Image
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
Image
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
Image
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
Image
Nobody's free until everybody's free.
Fannie Lou Hamer
Image
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
Image
Black people know what white people mean when they say “law and order”.
Fannie Lou Hamer
Image
If I am truly free, who can tell me how much of my freedom I can have today?
Fannie Lou Hamer
Image
You don't have to like everybody, but you have to love everybody.
Fannie Lou Hamer
Image
If this is a Great Society, I'd hate to see a bad one.
Fannie Lou Hamer
Image
We didnt come all this way for no two seats when all of us is tired.
Fannie Lou Hamer
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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
Image
I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.
Fannie Lou Hamer
Image
Righteousness exalts a nation. Hate just makes people miserable.
Fannie Lou Hamer
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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