The Life of Leaders

The Civil Rights Movement in the United States took place mostly during the 1960s. This movement had many strong faces ready to lead a movement of African-Americans to get the rights that they deserved. However, it was two of the less-recognizable faces that helped shape the movement. Ella Baker, who wanted to put a change in the system, and Fannie Lou Hamer, who is well known for her actions on trying to gather support, were two women who helped change the way the Civil Rights Movement played out. The SNCC, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, was formed to prevent violence from younger blacks, and to try and settle the issue of segregation in a peaceful manner. Fannie Lou Hamer and Ella Baker both had ideas on how to change the unacknowledged racist policies of some states at the time, and their way to leadership roles within the African-American society is intriguing for both women.

Fannie Lou Hamer, born in 1917, came from a family of sharecroppers, which was similar to the slavery that had been abolished some fifty-years earlier. Her father was practiced as a Baptist preacher, but held a sideshow as a bootlegger for his community. Her early background was enough cause for her to join into any Civil Rights Movement that would arise years later. Sharecropping was a way for whites in the South to keep their foot firmly on the necks of African-Americans, so they could not be a major part of actual society. With her family surviving on as little as “$300 a year,” Fannie Lou Hamer described her life as “worse than hard.” Hamer started working at a young age, and she later realized that she was tricked into working for a conniving plantation owner. She soon learned the hard way that hard work for a white plantat...

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... get them registered to vote, and making the change necessary for the South. Hamer’s outlandish nature made her an easy target, just like Ella Baker, for the law-enforcement in the South, but this did not prevent her from trying to be the difference.

Both women were extremely strong in their belief that they needed to be the change for African-Americans. Whether this change was in the South, or across the entire United States, these women both wanted things to be different. They used their backgrounds and experiences to be the change, and spread the word about making a difference in society. Their leadership roles might have been different in the African-American spectrum, but both women were greatly respected during their time at the top. They grew from their experiences, and used them to their advantage when being the change they wanted to see.