Screening of Fannie Lou Hamer’s America At Two Mississippi Museums Yields Emotional Response
JACKSON, MS – FEBRUARY 9, 2024 – A screening of the award-winning film, Fannie Lou Hamer’s America, at the Two Mississippi Museums in Jackson on January 21 took an emotional turn when one of the attendees read a letter the civil rights icon wrote to his wife more than 50 years ago.
Dr. Edgar Smith said he hoped he “could keep it together” as he read the letter Hamer wrote in 1968, thanking Smith’s wife, Inez, for sending her provisions from Lexington, Massachusetts to distribute among the poorest residents of Sunflower County in the Mississippi Delta.
“While we were living in Massachusetts, we were still connected with Mississippi,” Smith said. “And through our activities, we learned about…what Mrs. Hamer was doing in Mississippi, and we wanted to support her.”
Nearly a hundred people turned out to watch the film that allows Mississippi-sharecropper-turned-civil-rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer to tell her own story in her own words – both spoken and sung. Others in attendance commented on how moved they were to see Hamer so present on the screen. The film was shown at the Craig H. Neilsen Auditorium of the Two Mississippi Museums as part of their Sunday screening program.
In June 2023, the Mississippi Humanities Council (MHC) partnered with the Mississippi Film Office and the Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH) to bring free, high-quality documentary film screenings to public audiences each month for the next year. The first film shown was the Promised Land: The Story of Mound Bayou.
“Sunday screenings is an opportunity to share and discuss vital Mississippi stories,” said Dr. Stuart Rockoff, executive director of the MHC. “We were proud to help present Fannie Lou Hamer’s America, which traces the life of this extraordinary woman who became one of the most powerful voices for justice in American history.”
Director, editor and music composer of Fannie Lou Hamer’s America, Joy Davenport, speaks at the March 2022 screening at the Two Mississippi Museums.
Following the screening of Fannie Lou Hamer’s America, the audience engaged in a virtual question-and-answer forum with the film’s director, Joy Elaine Davenport and the film’s producer and Hamer’s niece, Monica Land. The discussion was moderated by John Spann, Program and Outreach Officer with the MHC.
Dr. Rockoff was also in attendance.
“Although I’ve seen the film several times now, it never ceases to be powerful and moving for me,” he said.
Davenport and Land were questioned about the 15-year process involved in making the film and its challenges. The session lasted about 30 minutes and concluded with Spann encouraging all to visit the film’s website that has educational and research content on Fannie Lou Hamer for K-12 students and tourism features for visitors.
This was the second screening of the film at the Two Mississippi Museums. The first was funded by the MHC and held in March 2022 shortly after Fannie Lou Hamer’s America premiered on PBS and WORLD Channel a few weeks before in February. Davenport attended in person and afterward fielded questions from the audience.
The Mississippi Humanities Council awarded the film their first grant in 2017. Several subsequent grants funded their curriculum’s STEM program - the Sunflower County Film Academy, and a portion of the film’s postproduction archival footage costs. In March 2022, the project was awarded their Preserver of Mississippi Culture Award.