Bill > SR163

This resolution honors Fannie Lou Hamer, a civil rights activist born in 1917 in Mississippi, who dedicated her life to fighting racial injustice and expanding voting rights for African Americans. The resolution highlights her significant contributions, including her work with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, her founding of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, and her efforts to register 60,000 new African American voters. It details the profound challenges she faced, including being involuntarily sterilized during a medical procedure, being fired from her sharecropping job for attempting to vote, and experiencing brutal police violence during her civil rights activism. The resolution also acknowledges her persistent commitment to civil rights despite facing threats, arrests, and physical violence, and recognizes her continued political activism after the Voting Rights Act of 1965, including helping establish the National Women's Political Caucus in 1971. By commemorating Hamer on the 108th anniversary of her birth, the resolution seeks to recognize her immense contributions to securing civil rights for minorities, women, and low-income families, and to preserve her legacy as a courageous and transformative figure in American history.

Government Affairs

https://www.palegis.us/legislation/bills/2025/sr163