Are You for Fannie Lou?: The Campaign for Her Statue

One of my besties is from Jackson, Mississippi. I met her in college; and despite our immediate bond, when she invited me to her home in the "Deep South", I was entirely horrified. Me, with my New York City entree into the world and my still Northern, Pittsburgh upbringing, having viewed the film, "Mississippi Burning" in the not-so-distant past? Let's just say the invitation gave me pause.

However, I love to travel so, instead of saying "No, Thanks" to her Thanksgiving invitation, I just sunk lower and lower in the backseat of the car as we sped our way into the state that would forever change my life. I expected that we would be pulled over and slaughtered on the roadside, just like so many of the persons I had read about, not just Goodman, Schwerner and Chaney but that which the nameless, faceless of history, had experienced. I didn't verbalize these fears, as I thought it might be rude, not that my honesty would be met with any level of compassion. Indeed, the tighter I held onto my pillow and peeked over the dashboard onto the highway, the more uproariously my car mates (and so called friends) would point at me and laugh.

Mississippi.

It's the state we all come to learn how to spell. It's also the state Nina Simone damned to hell.

But I've come to love Mississippi because, over time, I have learned more about its history and how African Americans organized and inspired more Americans to fight for human rights and, subsequently, changed the world. The WORLD. Now, although we have won some battles, the war is not over. Today, Mississippi has the most African Americans in elected office; but it's the poorest state in America.

We have only just begun to thoroughly (and critically) engage and understand the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements in America. It's amazing to think that, as recently as 1960, African Americans were still sharecropping and living in stunning poverty in the South---the worst of which was in Mississippi.

WHAT?!

So, imagine, a woman such as Fannie Lou Hamer, a resident of Ruleville, MS, being approached by a young organizer from the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and asked to come to a meeting on Voter Registration, whereupon she was so overwhelmed with and enamored by the possibility of being free from oppression that she was willing to sacrifice everything (including her home, employment and family as a sharecropper on the plantation) to do so?

"We didn't fight this hard for you to stay home and not vote in November!"

And imagine, that after having walked off of the only livelihood she knew, she became a community organizer, singing church songs such as "This Little Light of Mine" (her favorite) and not only inspiring more persons to take charge of their lives by voting and being engaged in the political process; but also becoming one of the leading spokespersons and representatives of her people?! Amazing.

Lawd knows my feet hurt but I ain't no ways tired...gotta represent for the people!

These days, many of us take voting, Black political representation and, certainly, Black women's roles in political power, for granted. But if it weren't for supreme organizer, Ella Baker encouraging young people to create their own organization (since they didn't want to be the youth wing of the SCLC, ahem) and the young people creating the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) for themselves; and their decision to focus on voter registration (and obtaining the power to exert control over their lives); and Fannie Lou Hamer going to that meeting and not only joining SNCC but becoming one of its most passionate figureheads and organizers; and SNCC helping to form the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) to further influence the Democratic Party at the National Convention in 1964 (just like the Tea Party is doing within the Republican Party in 2010, ahem); and the racist, Dixiecrats so determined to maintain the system of white supremacy that they left the Democratic Party and joined the Republican Party, thereby focusing on a "Southern Strategy" to get disaffected, angry white men to join in on the backlash against the Civil Rights Movement (and subsequent Women's Rights Movement), championed by the likes of Ronald Reagan (whose harsh policies helped give birth to Hip Hop) and George Bush, Sr. and George Bush, Jr. (who practically destroyed the country), causing a tidal wave of young, disenfranchised Americans fed up with racism, classism and sexism and birthed on Hip Hop to the point where they wanted to get out and vote---there would be no President Barack Obama.

President Barack and First Lady Michelle Obama

And that was a stream-of-consciousness, historical rant. Oh yes, President Barack Obama owes much to a poor, Black woman in Mississippi named Fannie Lou Hamer. There's a bit of irony here, since he also owes much to a woman who grew up as a poor, Black girl in Mississippi, named Oprah Winfrey. But, for now, let's give it up for the OGs, Pap and Fannie!

Sharecroppers and Citizens, Perry "Pap" and Fannie Lou Hamer

"And you know, I'm not hung up on this thing about liberating myself from the black man, I'm not going to try that thing.  I got a black husband, six feet three, two hundred and forty pounds, with a 14 shoe, that I don't want to be liberated from.  But we are here to work side by side with this black man in trying to bring liberation to all people."

I know that's right, Mrs. Hamer! Speak on it!

Notice that she didn't say she was trying to work behind her husband either, so get it right, Fellas! And get it right, feminists and Africana Womanists! You see, this is what an organization built upon participatory democracy can do. It is one that allows space for women and everyday citizenry to speak for themselves. According to Historian and Civil Rights expert, Dr. Tiyi Morris of Ohio State University:

SNCC offered the centrality of grassroots activism on behalf of regular citizens and stressed "letting the people decide"...this is the foundation upon which Barack Obama worked as a community organizer and the philosophical tenets of his campaign.

Brilliant, Dr. Morris, especially when I think about the manner in which these central tenets were combined with top-notch technology and social media to tilt the world on its axis. The election of Barack Obama was not the change, in and of itself, but (as he has said many, many times), "the opportunity to make a change." I believe that because my consistent mantra has been that Barack Obama is the Activist's President. You bring him the pain to his door and his administration will open it. Make him do what you want like Fannie Lou Hamer, SNCC, the MFDP and those young activists made LBJ sign the Civil Rights Act and change American and World History, forever.

When Fannie Lou Hamer spoke truth to power in Atlantic City at the 1964 Democratic National Convention, she told harsh truths about being Black in America that were a far cry from a young Senator from Illinois being invited to take center stage in 2004. But one could not and does not exist without the other.

You see how this picture shows her all heroic and fierce and telling her oppressors off as she gives her testimony?

Testifying before the Credentials Committee and televised before the world.

 We do love that... but look closer now... do you see those tears in her eyes?:

(an "emergency broadcast" interrupted Mrs. Hamer's speech on television) Emergency, indeed...

THAT was Fannie Lou, too.

I do not know her kind of pain---and I am so thankful. But since she fought for me, I figure I can fight for her, you know? Listen to her give her narrative and read the transcript and a bio here.

This is also why I support Melissa Harris-Lacewell (now Perry), in this interview with Democracy Now's Amy Goodman, as she insists that President Obama acknowledge and address the role of Black women's political activism---the legacy upon which he stands:

(as an aside, doesn't MHP look just like the woman on the old book cover of For Colored Girls...?)

Today, in Ruleville, Mississippi (where Fannie Lou Hamer broke the rules of oppression), sits a beautiful Memorial Garden created on the "Freedom Farm" Mrs. Hamer purchased to further assist poor, Black people in becoming self-sufficient and having a place to grow their food, despite leaving (or getting kicked off) the plantations upon which they were sharecropping---just as she had experienced.

When I first traveled to Ruleville with The Fannie Lou Hamer National Institute on Citizenship and Democracy at Jackson State University and sat at Fannie Lou Hamer's grave, I simply had not ever heard of "Freedom Farm" and found myself astonished, ashamed and angry about that which I did not know. Mind you, this was after college and after graduate school---and African American History is one of my specialties. #FAIL

I'm feeling mighty unworthy and, yet, grateful...

Thus, when I visited again this year, I learned that the National Fannie Lou Hamer Statue Fund Committee (organized by Patricia Thompson of ROAR) had been collecting money to erect a statue of Ms. Hamer right there at the Memorial Gardens. They needed approximately $125,000 and, as usual, it was a small, committed group of veterans of the Civil Rights Movement and their friends who had done all of the leg work and had launched the campaign. When Patricia Thompson first encountered Fannie Lou Hamer's grave, the grass was up to her knees and she cried in the middle of the field, vowing to make things right. It reminded me of Alice Walker's search for Zora Neale Hurston's grave and what she found. So, Ms. Thompson and others got to work. They chopped down the grass, then they took Freedom Farm from this:

To this, the Fannie Lou Hamer Memorial Garden:

The Fannie Lou Hamer Memorial Garden, Ruleville, MS

Go ahead and give them a standing ovation right now! In your living room, office, at your desk, give them a hand! Now, somebody please tell me why we cannot meet this goal post-stat?! I mean, it's sort of embarrassing, isn't it? There are many more pictures and much more information on the website. Please check it out!

But I am 'sick and tired' of us not properly honoring the persons who sacrificed so much for us---as Black people, as Americans, as women, as Democrats, as elected officials, as human beings who stand up for our principles and each other's rights.... Fannie Lou Hamer was thrown in jail and beaten severely for her activism. Later, she would die (and way too early, she never made it to 60 years old) as a result of heart disease, diabetes, living a hard life on the plantation and, yes, the beatings she suffered in jail.

But she couldn't do a whole lot of crying in public. She had things to do and young people to continue to inspire, which is why this intergenerational picture means so much to me:

Yes, that's Stokely Carmichael aka Kwame Ture in the back and Ella Baker on the far right.

It is because of her activism that I could write a comedy about going to jail but I also did so because as much as folks love Tyler Perry's "Madea Goes to Jail", it is largely without the socio-political commentary that I tend to like in my art, even though "For Colored Girls" may provide it. Nevertheless, I decided to flip the script---literally...

http://www.drgoddess.com/merchandise

In "Dr. Goddess Goes to Jail: A Spoken Word, Musical Comedy (Unfortunately) Based on a True Story", I chose to create an intergenerational celebration of the Civil Rights Movement. And, although this came pretty natural for me (after years of unlearning & reconditioning), it is also a Feminist/Womanifesto, which stars "four little girls". And, in my own brand of satiric irony, the hit song in this production about activism and commitment is "Neutrality", a song that revels in fence-riding, apathy and immobility, in which I sing:

But what about Rosa? What about Rosa? / What about Rosa, Ella Baker and Fannie Lou?

If I were any one of those women, / What would you say? What would you tell me to do?

What about them, folks? Can we put our hands together and get this Fannie Lou Hamer Statue up?

Let a Sista know. . . Are YOU for Fannie Lou?

If so, please DONATE any amount that you can here or click below.

And if you want to get uber-supportive, write anything that inspired you about Fannie Lou (or just share the link to this blog); and put this picture and this code up on your blog:

It won't take long to raise the money. We want everyone to have BUY-IN, so your small donation is actually preferred ($10 - $100 is perfect!)

We're also using Chip In to keep track of our progress and donations!:


Chip In uses PAYPAL and you can PRINT a RECEIPT!

These persons have ALREADY raised $20,000, so chip in!
Anything over the amount goes to the Education Fund & Maintenance of the Memorial Garden.

And I thanks ya kindly in the Hamerly way!

U.S. Highway 49, Ruleville, Mississippi

We'd also like to further show the City of Ruleville, MS (a population of approximately 3,000 persons with a median income of $23,036), that the National Fannie Lou Hamer Statue Fund has a lot of supporters who intend to see Fannie Lou Hamer get her propers. So, stay tuned!

Euvester Simpson is pictured on the cover. Dr. Tiyi Morris is her daughter.

By the way, the bestie who invited me to her hometown and laughed at me, mercilessly, on the ride there? Well, she did pull over on the way back and allowed me to pick some cotton up off the side of the road. And, as it turns out, her mother, Euvester Simpson, was just a young, woman, Civil Rights worker when she shared a jail cell with Fannie Lou Hamer, the same day she was brutally beaten. I had no idea, when I decided to visit Mississippi during Thanksgiving Break, that my life would never be the same because of the women and men who paved the road for me to arrive.

Are You for Fannie Lou? Well, Me Too!

Support us on our Facebook Page, Facebook Group and Follow us Twitter!

@FannieLouHamer @HamerStatueFund @FannieLouWho 

Use the hashtag #fannielou

Special Thanks to: Patricia Thompson, Repaying Our Ancestors Respectfully (ROAR), the National Fannie Lou Hamer Statue Fund Committee and the National Black United Fund (NBUF) for serving as our fiscal sponsor!

August Wilson Historic Designation

Folks,

We've been very busy over here in the Historic Hill District.

And speaking of history, today at 1:00pm, City County Building, Downtown Pittsburgh

YOU can weigh in on what I wrote in my Revelations Column:

1. The Historic designation of August Wilson's birth home by City Council

2. The legislation offered by Rev. Ricky Burgess to correct the shadiness caused by a legislator/council member seeking to stop AW's historic designation.

3. The call for a full investigation on who and/or what pulled the legislation of the AW historic home designation and sought to pocket veto (bury it), thereby not allowing the home to come up for designation for five more years.

It's a shame. But we want to Hold Them To It!

If you can't make it, PLEASE CALL or EMAIL the City Clerk and register your thoughts:

Contact Info: City Clerk's Office
510 City - County Building
414 Grant St.Pittsburgh, PA 15219
(412) 255-2138

In addition, August Wilson's "Radio Golf" will finally be staged at the Public Theater, October 2 - November 2, 2008. Save the Dates!


By the way, I'd like for you to read what Pittsburghers have been talking about relative to the Hill, the AW home, etc. Let's start with my column:

Dr. Judy says: What an on the spot article. Last year I noticed an official Pittsburgh Website that listed all the famous people and under authors John Wideman was not listed. I emailed them to chide them and never received an email back. We need to celebrate all of our geniuses.

TKO says: Dr. Goddess is being coy, what she and her brother really want (as usual) is $$$$. There is already a nice monument to August Wilson downtown.

(Would someone mind sharing with TKO why preserving August Wilson's home might be remotely important; and would someone also share why having a center named for Wilson downtown is an honor but not quite the same as renovating his childhood home? Sheesh . . .)

And be sure to Read the Racism on Craig's List!

We Lost the Battle, We'll Win the War

Yesterday, we had a very interesting City Planning Commission Hearing, at the end of which the Commission voted to approve the Pittsburgh Penguins' plan for the new arena in the front yard of our Historic Hill District neighborhood.

Just before the hearing began, at about 1:30pm, Mayor Ravenstahl, Councilwoman Tonya Payne, One Hill CBA Chair Carl Redwood and One Hill Lead negotiator Evan Frazier had press conference talking about how negotiations were going. It was hilarious, for so many reasons (hint: watch Tonya Payne). See for yourself.

Many persons came out to support our cause, all across the City of Pittsburgh and we appreciate that. The overwhelming majority of persons who came out wore red or put on red ribbons to signify Hill unity (full and shared representation), the right for us to speak out and be heard and the message that "We Won't Repeat the Defeat!"

We stood outside in the hallway and then a policeman came out and announced that the hearing on the Hill would begin shortly and that only the persons who signed up to speak at the last hearing would be able to speak this time because this was a continuance, not a hearing---and that the list contained only seven people. Lots of grumbling, I challenged that and the policeman told me to speak to the Chairwoman inside, which is where I immediately went when I got in the room. Unfortunately, a number of our supporters left before ever entering into the room to challenge that miscarriage of justice.

I told Chairwoman Wrenna Watson that many of us had not signed up and that I had not received my full time as the head of an organization last time. She insisted that I did receive my full time and I was not buzzed at 3 minutes. The timer lady (what would she be called, btw?) said that I was not buzzed at 3 minutes, either. Of course, I checked when I got home and I was buzzed at 3 minutes and 28 seconds. I'm going to follow up on that because . . . "Nobody puts Baby in a corner!"

More importantly (and seriously), our hero of the day was Momar Milliones, a member of the Hill Faith and Justice Alliance (the coalition of which I am a part) and one of the original persons who stood up on that bitterly cold day in January to make sure the Pens did not steamroll our entire community (including our elected officials). Momar patiently waited for his turn (as he was one of the original seven supposedly permitted to speak), immediately asked for his time not to begin and made a calm, rational but determined plea for the public, the PEOPLE to be able to speak.

The most profound moment of his speech is when he said there are rare opportunities for the average citizen to participate in a process such as this, the process was flawed from the initial sign up and that the Commissioners should do the right thing and allow the citizens to be heard.

The Commissioners voted and all Pittsburgh citizens were permitted to speak, including Sal Williams, who spoke in support of the Pens (and the 50 surface parking lots, vacant lots and abandoned buildings he owns, mostly on Fifth Avenue). Interestingly, I've learned that former Councilman, Sala Udin, tried to prevent the continued development of surface lots in Uptown and the Hill as early as the year 2000. Very interesting.

"Yo, Sal, how come you ain't got no brothers up on the wall?"

No, I never got my minutes back but I did sit there and patiently listen to everyone's comments and took pictures of all of them.

The City Planning Commission was disappointing not necessarily because they voted "yes" but because they seemed to violate or otherwise go against their own criteria---even outside of the CBA. Some of them had not seen the updated plans for the parking garage. Some of them did not understand the logistics of what they might be passing. Others felt burdened by all of the supposed amendments that would have to happen in the future---but passed the plan anyway despite their own criteria for approval (why, Commissioner Mistick?) Here is a classic example :

Commission member Barbara K. Mistick said she wasn't satisfied with the amount of parking that will be available.

The Penguins plan to build a 500-space garage that could be expanded later to 780 spaces, but the 2,400 spaces available at the 16,900-seat Mellon Arena eventually will disappear once the land is developed, she said.

"Do the math. Now you've got 18,000 seats and you're giving up 2,400 parking spaces," Mistick said.

Despite her misgivings, Mistick voted in favor of the plan along with E. Paul Dick, Monte Rabner, Todd E. Reidbord and Mary Lou Simon. Voting against were Chairwoman Wrenna L. Watson, Barbara Ernsberger and Lynne Garfinkel.

And still others, like Todd Reidbord, for example, left the hearing right in the middle of testimonies to go watch the Pittsburgh Panthers play basketball, skipped tons of important information that could have changed his vote and then return to pass the Pens' arena plan.

We also discovered that the City Planning Commission can sort of guess what the social impact of a particular development might be---even something as large as this---without a social impact study.

So, with all that said and done, we lost the battle but we will win this war.

Do not fear, friends. Nobody was really surprised by yesterday's vote.

In the meantime, an excellent review of Mindy Fullilove's "Root Shock" appears here at Null Space. This will be good for all of the people that don't understand the root causes of friction, division, crime, struggling infrastructure of organizations and problems with development in urban, African American communities like the Historic Hill District.

Get your read on.

Vote for Me!

In my best "me and my girlfriend" Jay-Z & Beyonce impersonation:

Yep!
Vote for me...
Dr. G, cruisin' down the West Side
highway . . .
Doin' things I like to do
my way . . .

All I need in this life of sin
is me and my girlfriends (plus my boyfriend)
down to ride 'til the very end
it's me and my girlfriends (plus my boyfriend)

****
So, I secured enough nominations and now I need votes for:

Mover and Shaker of the Year
Best Writer / Journalist of the Year
Poet of the Year

Click here to vote in Pittsburgh's Hip Hop Awards.
I'd appreciate your support.


Why Mover and Shaker?
Raise Your Hand! No Casino on the Hill Campaign, Raise Your Hand! No Games Movement & Film Series, Full Reinvestment / Community Benefits for the Hill, Highlighting Gentrification in East Liberty, Women's Equal Pay Rally, Codepink Anti-War Rally, Save Schenley, etc.

Why Writer/Journalist?
New Pittsburgh Courier Guest Columnist, Letters to the Editor on Gaming, Proper Leadership, putting Isle of Capri, Penguins, "Pittsburgh First", Rev. Simms and Rep. Payne on blast, "Revelations by Dr. Goddess" columnist, Pittsburgh City Paper, sharing info during appearances on KDKA, WTAE, WPXI, WKQV News Radio, Rustbelt Radio and frequently on Ebony Spectrum, 88.3FM w/ Rick Adams and Kevin Amos, etc.

Why Poet?
Dr. Goddess!: A One Woman Show & Dr. Goddess Goes to Jail, spoken word, musical comedies, 1st place winner of Mic Melter's series, guest poet at Glaxo Smith Klein, Poet Instructor @ Hill House Summer Camp, Three Rivers Arts Festival sold out performances, First Voices Int'l Black Arts Festival, etc., a part of the Best of Rustbelt Radio Fall of 2007 for "Power Concedes Nothing: We Demand" at the "Day of Peace, Coalition Against Violence" by Black Political Empowerment Project (B-PEP) and One Hood.


Word.