Quote

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

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
White
Moving
Today
Watched
Made
Americans
Every
Behinds
World
Behind
Move
Mistake

More quotes by Fannie Lou Hamer

Image
I would like to talk about some of the things that happened that made me know that there was something wrong in the south from a child.
Fannie Lou Hamer
Image
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
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
Image
I am determined to get every Negro in the state of Mississippi registered.
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
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
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
Image
I see so many ways America uses to rob Negroes and it is sinful and America can't keep holding on, and doing these things.
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
There is one thing you have got to learn about our movement. Three people are better than no people.
Fannie Lou Hamer
Image
If this is a Great Society, I'd hate to see a bad one.
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
It's time for America to get right.
Fannie Lou Hamer
Image
I was treated much better in Africa than I was treated in America. And you see, often I get letters like this: Go back to Africa.
Fannie Lou Hamer
Image
This problem is not only in Mississippi. During the time I was in the Convention in Atlantic City, I didn't get any threats from Mississippi. The threatening letters were from Philadelphia, Chicago and other big cities.
Fannie Lou Hamer
Image
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
Image
Nobody's free until everybody's free.
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
Hate won't only destroy us. It will destroy these people that's hating as well.
Fannie Lou Hamer