I have been bent and broken, but – I hope – into a better shape. – Charles Dickens

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It was the 31st of August in 1962 that eighteen of us traveled twenty-six miles to the county courthouse in Indianola to try to register to become first-class citizens. We was met in Indianola by policemen, Highway Patrolmen, and they only allowed two of us in to take the literacy test at the time. - Fannie Lou Hamer

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I am sick and tired of being sick and tired. - Fannie Lou Hamer

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I was forced away from the plantation because I wouldn't go back and withdraw, you know, my literacy test after I had tried to take it. I wouldn't go back.- Fannie Lou Hamer

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If I fall, I'll fall five feet four inches forward in the fight for freedom. I'm not backing off. - Fannie Lou Hamer

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One day, I know the struggle will change. There's got to be a change - not only for Mississippi, not only for the people in the United States, but people all over the world.- Fannie Lou Hamer

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Every red stripe in that flag represents the black man's blood that has been shed. - Fannie Lou Hamer

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Nobody's free until everybody's free. - Fannie Lou Hamer

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They - you know, when we walked in - when I walked in with the two white men that had carried me down - and they cursed me all the way down. They would ask me questions, and when I would try to answer, they would tell me to hush. - Fannie Lou Hamer

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They talked about how it was our rights as human beings to register and vote. I never knew we could vote before. Nobody ever told us. - Fannie Lou Hamer

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