Fannie Lou Hamer's legacy on display at this year's DNC in Chicago

It was appropriate that a strong, horn-mad voice from yesteryear became among the most powerful at another national convention of the Democratic Party.

One after the other, Democrats at the recent gathering in Chicago invoked the voice and image of legendary Mississippi Civil Rights Movement icon Fannie Lou Hamer, a firebrand Sunflower County sharecropper.

Sixty years previously at Atlantic City, Hamer had led the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party’s efforts to be seated as the official party delegates from this state. The MFDP gained only a modicum of success then, but four years later many of those Freedom Democrats became members of the newly structured “Loyal Democrats of Mississippi” party.

This year’s convention, where the first Black female in history was nominated by a national party to become president, occurred on the 60th anniversary of another momentous event — the Civil Rights Movement’s “Freedom Summer” that was underway back in Mississippi at the same time the high-voltage convention of 1964 was going on.

The framing of Hamer’s resolute and exhilarating battles back then and the bringing forth of her voice and image now helped to galvanize Democrats gathered to unite behind the campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris as she set out to derail former Republican President Donald Trump’s bid to return to the White House.

I can’t imagine many Mississippians of a certain era and age — those who lived through the turbulent 1960s — failing to remember Hamer’s rapid rejection of the compromise offered the Freedom Democrats by the national convention’s credentials committee at the 1964 gathering. The group said the Freedoms could have two at-large delegate seats and the others would be considered “honored guests” of the regular delegation.

Hamer’s retort was short and not meant to be sweet: “We didn’t come all this way for no two seats.”

Typical of the recollections in Chicago two weeks ago of Hamer was this from Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison: “This is more than just beating Donald Trump. … This is addressing Fannie Lou Hamer, who said she's sick and tired of being sick and tired. Well, we are sick and tired of being sick and tired of people coming after our freedom, coming after our rights."

Added current Mississippi Democratic Party Chair State Rep. Cheikh Taylor during the convention’s roll call vote, "We are proud of our heroes such as Fannie Lou Hamer."

Just as proud of carrying the Hamer torch today is Florida State University professor Davis Houck. “It’s a big honor to be the Fannie Lou Hamer Professor of Rhetorical Studies. That endowment was created, yes, to honor Mrs. Hamer, but also to honor her exceptional speaking abilities — which were on full display this past week when we celebrated her address at the DNC in 1964,” Houck said.

“What so many people miss about that address is two things: first, you'll note that she did live national television without a single note or an outline.  And, she was given exactly eight minutes to tell her story. At exactly eight minutes she finished her stirring speech! So yes, her ability to move an audience, and audiences of all stripes including countless university audiences, was really exceptional and speaks to her nuanced understanding of audiences — what they wanted to hear and what they needed to hear.

“Early on,” Houck added, “she figured out what her rhetorical touchstones would be — the firing from the Marlow Plantation in 1962 and her beating in the Montgomery County Jail in Winona in 1963. From these two foundational events she could build any speech before any audience.”

Hamer’s voice obviously was one not made to just fade away into the dark night.

— Mac Gordon, a native of McComb, is a retired newspaperman. He can be reached at macmarygordon@gmail.com .

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Fannie Lou Hamer's legacy on display at this year's DNC in Chicago