Quotes from Fannie Lou Hamer

I know lots of people in Mississippi who have lost their jobs trying to register to vote.

They talked about how it was our rights as human beings to register and vote. I never knew we could vote before. Nobody ever told us.

We hadn't heard anything about registering to vote because when you see this flat land in here, when the people would get out of the fields, if they had a radio, they'd be too tired to play it. So we didn't know what was going on in the rest of the state, even, much less in other places.

They - you know, when we walked in - when I walked in with the two white men that had carried me down - and they cursed me all the way down. They would ask me questions, and when I would try to answer, they would tell me to hush.

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.

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.

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.

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.

That's why I want to change Mississippi. You don't run away from problems - you just face them.

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.

There is one thing you have got to learn about our movement. Three people are better than no people.

You don't have to like everybody, but you have to love everybody.