Sunflower County Courthouse, Indianola, MS

Along with 17 others who had volunteered to try and register to vote, on August 31, 1962, Fannie Lou Hamer traveled 26 miles south from her home in Ruleville “to become a first-class citizen.” While she failed the rigged voting test on account of not knowing about “de facto” laws, Hamer was relentless in attempting to register; eventually she succeeded early in 1963. Today’s county courthouse in Indianola is not the same structure that Hamer visited in 1962, but it remains the seat of local governance for Sunflower County. On the way back to Ruleville on August 31, their bus was stopped by local police and the driver was arrested for driving a bus that was the wrong color.