civil rights legend fannie lou hamer’s story is coming to the big screen

“I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired!” – Fannie Lou Hamer

Remember the Titans writer Gregory Allen Howard is finally bringing the story of famed civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer to the big screen!

Hamer was a sharecropper who became a major player in the fights for Black voting-rights in the ’60s. She also founded the first integrated political party in the South in her state of Mississippi.

Hamer’s story is one of profound achievements, but it also highlights the systematic violence against Black women by the government.

When she was 47, Hamer was given a hysterectomy without her consent after going to a doctor to have a tumor removed, as part of the state’s eugenicist initiative to reduce the number of poor Black children. She also survived multiple assassination attempts and was almost killed in a beating when she challenged to Democratic National Convention on it’s segregationist policies and gave President Lyndon B. Johnson her iconic “Is This America?” speech that he created a fake press conference to distract from. Hamer died in 1977.

“Mrs. Hamer is arguably the greatest female political icon of the 20th century,” Howard told Deadline. “Because of her courage and inspiring words, she has earned a spot in the hearts of black America second only to Dr. King.”

We can’t wait!