UNTIL I AM FREE: FANNIE LOU HAMER’S ENDURING MESSAGE TO AMERICA is Dr. Keisha Blain’s love letter to Black activist Fannie Lou Hamer, whose ideas and political strategies continue to influence modern activists. Hamer worked tirelessly for voter suppression, police violence, economic inequality, and reproductive rights and justice- all issues we still find ourselves at violent crossroads here in the United States. Having grown up poor, Black, female, and disabled, Fannie Lou Hamer’s activism reflected the intersections of her identities in a time where such nuance wasn’t widespread. Dr. Blain situates Hamer as a key political thinker during the Civil Rights movement alongside leaders like Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X, and Rosa Parks. Decades later, her ideas remain relevant and notable for a new generation of activists. This event is free and open to all, accessible through our Facebook and Youtube pages (@busboysandpoets).
Please RSVP if you are interested in purchasing a signed book with shipping- otherwise you can find the livestream on Facebook or Youtube for public access
This program will only be hosted virtually, on Facebook and Youtube Live. We will start at 6 PM sharp with an introduction from Busboys and Poets Books Director of Operations, Lori Barrientos Sanchez, before we get right into it with Dr. Keisha Blain and Clint Smith to hear more about the amazing, radical life of Fannie Lou Hamer and the lasting legacy she left. Learn more about this incredible and often overlooked Civil Rights activist and her work, which included reproductive justice and rights in tandem with her antiracist work. There will be time for Q&A with the audience before the end of the program, as well as the opportunity to purchase a signed copy of UNTIL I AM FREE after the program is over!
A blend of social commentary, biography, and intellectual history, UNTIL I AM FREE: FANNIE LOU HAMER’S ENDURING MESSAGE TO AMERICA is a manifesto for anyone committed to social justice. The book challenges us to listen to a working-poor and disabled Black woman activist and intellectual of the civil rights movement as we grapple with contemporary concerns around race, inequality, and social justice.
Award-winning historian and New York Times best-selling author Keisha N. Blain situates Fannie Lou Hamer as a key political thinker alongside leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Rosa Parks and demonstrates how her ideas remain salient for a new generation of activists committed to dismantling systems of oppression in the United States and across the globe.
Despite her limited material resources and the myriad challenges she endured as a Black woman living in poverty in Mississippi, Hamer committed herself to making a difference in the lives of others. She refused to be sidelined in the movement and refused to be intimidated by those of higher social status and with better jobs and education. In these pages, Hamer’s words and ideas take center stage, allowing us all to hear the activist’s voice and deeply engage her words, as though we had the privilege to sit right beside her.
More than 40 years since Hamer’s death in 1977, her words still speak truth to power, laying bare the faults in American society and offering valuable insights on how we might yet continue the fight to help the nation live up to its core ideals of “equality and justice for all.â€
Dr. Keisha N. Blain is a historian of the 20th-century United States specializing in African American history, the modern African diaspora, and women's and gender studies. She is the author of the multi-prize-winning book SET THE WORLD ON FIRE and co-editor, with Ibram X. Kendi, of the #1 New York Times bestseller FOUR HUNDRED SOULS. She is an associate professor of history at the University of Pittsburgh, president of the African American Intellectual History Society, and a columnist for MSNBC. Follow her at keishablain.com, on Twitter (@keishablain), and on Instagram (@keishanblain).
Clint Smith is a staff writer at The Atlantic and the author of the poetry collection COUNTING DESCENT. The book won the 2017 Literary Award for Best Poetry Book from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association and was a finalist for an NAACP Image Award. He has received fellowships from New America, the Emerson Collective, the Art For Justice Fund, Cave Canem, and the National Science Foundation. His writing has been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Poetry Magazine, The Paris Review and elsewhere. Born and raised in New Orleans, he received his B.A. in English from Davidson College and his Ph.D. in Education from Harvard University.
