Fannie Lou Hamer’s Daughter Attends Film Festival Honoring Women in Civil Rights
October 3, 2019 – WASHINGTON, D.C.
The daughter of civil rights icon, Fannie Lou Hamer, attended the annual March on Washington Film Festival (MOWFF) in Washington, D.C. on September 25 which included a new musical about her mother. Jacqueline Hamer Flakes, the last surviving child of Hamer and her husband, Perry (Pap), said the presentation was informative and enlightening.
“The film festival was excellent,” Flakes said. “The musical is much needed for our people because it gives the correct information on what really happened with my mom, Annie Devine and Victoria Gray.”
DEVINE HAMER GRAY, a new theatrical work by Nolan Williams Jr., was hosted by George Washington University and addresses the 1964 contested congressional election of civil rights activists Annie Devine, Fannie Lou Hamer and Victoria Gray, who together also founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) to challenge the state of Mississippi’s whites-only Democratic Party.
“DEVINE HAMER GRAY is an important untold story of the Movement,” said Williams. “Now more than ever, we need to draw inspiration from trailblazers like Fannie Lou Hamer, Annie Devine and Victoria Jackson Gray. Their heroism is what inspired me to compose this work. And, my company, NEWorks Productions, is honored to partner with MOWFF to co-present a world premiere reading of the musical (in development) as part of this year’s festival.”
The week-long film festival, founded by Robert Raben, who served as Assistant Attorney General at the Department of Justice under President Bill Clinton, was held September 22 through September 29. The festival began with a tribute to poet and educator Nikki Giovanni and featured panel discussions, theatrical performances and exhibitions on Delores Huerta, who worked alongside Cesar Chavez to unionize workers and Althea Gibson, the outspoken star of the highly segregated world of professional tennis during the 1950s. Other films featured Aretha Franklin, Bessie Smith, Josephine Baker, Billie Holiday and Mahalia Jackson.
Another notable presentation, She Lied – Carolyn Bryant and the Murder of Emmett Till, was a mock trial that examines the historical roots of false accusations leveled at black men by white women.
Organizers said the fifth annual March on Washington Film Festival served as a national platform to celebrate and increase awareness of the untold events and heroes of the civil rights movement like Fannie Lou Hamer, who not only fought for equal rights for all, but through her many humanitarian efforts, provided food, clothing and shelter for the poorest of the poor in Mississippi.
“The spirit of those civil rights activists was definitely in the room,” said Flakes. “We all laughed and cried and learned the actual truth that has been untold all these years.”
Flakes was presented with an actual copy of the transcript from the House of Representatives Congressional Record.
Flakes was one of four children adopted by the Hamers, including her sister, Lenora, who passed away on July 13, 2019, and their mother, Dorothy Jean, who died in 1966 when Flakes was 6-months-old. The Hamers adopted Jacqueline and 17-month-old Lenora after Dorothy’s death.
Hamer was unable to have children after a Mississippi doctor performed a hysterectomy, while removing a tumor, without her knowledge or consent. Longing for children of their own, the Hamers adopted all four girls as infants, including a fourth, Vergie Ree. Vergie died in October 2017.
Flakes, who is part of a Speaker’s Bureau for a multimodal project honoring her mother that features a new online educational resource, student workshop and an original documentary film, Fannie Lou Hamer’s America, said she is honored to educate a new generation of students to the achievements of her mother.
“I just think it’s a blessing that she’s being acknowledged for the work that she did and her struggles,” Flakes said. “I believe if she were living, she would be as humbled as she’d always been. And wouldn’t believe that she would have as much as an impact on history as she has.”