“Mississippi Goddam”

This chapter charts the time when after Fannie Lou Hamer lost her primary election bid for Congress she traveled to Washington D.C. for a hearing on voter-registration efforts and more generally on the violence and intimidation Black Mississippians were facing every day. Hamer was among the dozen or more Mississippi residents and activists who gave statements in front of a panel of experts that included prominent authors, lawyers, doctors, sociologists, as well as New York Democratic Congressman William Fitts Ryan who listened to their testimony and asked questions. They hoped their testimonies would move President Lyndon B. Johnson to provide protection for Freedom Summer workers and pressure the Senate to vote in favor of a major civil rights bill. Ultimately, the testimonies made clear that white supremacy was flourishing in Mississippi. When Congressman Fitts Ryan submitted the recorded testimonies to the House of Representatives for inclusion in the Congressional Record, he formally requested that Attorney General Robert Kennedy send Federal marshals to Mississippi to protect the summer project workers.