Historical Marker Planned for site of Winona Jail Where Fannie Lou Hamer Was Beaten
MAY 3, 2022 - WINONA, MS - Fannie Lou Hamer and five of her civil rights colleagues: June Johnson, Annell Ponder, Euvester Simpson, Rosemary Freeman, and James West were arrested and beaten in Winona, Mississippi on June 9, 1963. They were returning by bus from a voter education workshop in South Carolina. A Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee leader, Lawrence Guyot, was also beaten and tortured that same day after he tried to bail the group out of jail.
Fifty-nine years later, a Mississippi State Historical Marker will be unveiled during a ceremony at the corner of Oak Drive and Sterling Avenue in Winona, Mississippi on the site of the old Montgomery County Jail at 2:00 PM CST on June 9, 2022. The City of Winona Board of Aldermen approved a proclamation declaring an annual observation of June 9 as Fannie Lou Hamer Day. This four-day commemoration was achieved by efforts of the not-for-profit Land Literacy and Legacy whose vision is to create awareness of the importance of our local and national history, through educating and bridging community.
Following the unveiling, a day of community fellowship, voter registration, oral history interviews, food trucks, music, information vendors and children’s activities will occur at the Winona Community House located at 113 Sterling Avenue until 8:00 PM. The commemoration will continue through the weekend with a Landowner Forestry and Land Retention Summit, historical bus tour, museum visits and culminates with a Winona Community Healing Service Sunday June 12 at Winona Baptist Church.
Mrs. Hamer spoke publicly and privately about the brutal beating she’d received in the jail from the day she was released until she passed in 1977. The searing trauma of Winona was always present in her speechmaking, teaching, and in her oral histories. The beating also catalyzed her activism. As she was fond of saying: “Sometimes it seems like to tell the truth today is to run the risk of being killed. But if I fall, I'll fall five feet four inches forward in the fight for freedom. I'm not backing off.” Mrs. Hamer never fully healed from the wounds she suffered in Winona.
The Winona, MS Board of Alderman and the mayor, Aaron Dees (seated) sign a proclamation declaring June 9 as Fannie Lou Hamer Day.
The federal government tried five Montgomery County law enforcement officers for depriving the group of their civil rights: Earle Wayne Patridge, Thomas J. Herod, Jr., William Surrell, John L. Basinger, and Charles Thomas Perkins. Despite their perjured testimony, they were acquitted by an all-male, all-white Mississippi jury in December 1963.
Until now, the city of Winona has said little, if anything, about the horrific beatings that happened in its community. On June 9, 2022, that silence will be broken with a public consecration and celebration of the lives of the activists whose commitment was for a racially just Mississippi. (For more information contact: Vickie Roberts-Ratliff (vickieratliff1@gmail.com, (662) 508-0578)
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