Fannie Lou Hamer’s convention and Mississippi’s Freedom Summer

(Children’s Defense Fund) – As our nation gears up for a political convention where a woman of color will make history, it’s another chance to look back at the convention that happened 60 years ago this week in Atlantic City, N.J., during the Civil Rights Movement’s landmark Freedom Summer. The extraordinary woman who made history then as the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party unsuccessfully sought to unseat the segregated slate of Mississippi Party regulars was one of our nation’s civil rights sheroes and one of my own great lanterns and role models from the dog days of struggle in Mississippi: Fannie Lou Hamer. As Children’s Defense Fund continues to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Freedom Summer, we honor that moment and its legacy today.Related Stories Hamer, the 20th child born of poor Mississippi sharecroppers, once asked her mother why they weren’t White. She internalized and lived her mother’s answer, “You must respect yourself as a little child, a little Black child. And as you grow older, respect yourself as a Black woman. Then one day, other people will respect you.”And we did respect Hamer as a Black woman. And we loved her. I loved her. Hamer was 44 and working on...