Civil Rights hero Fannie Lou Hamer will be celebrated in a new play opening at Kenny Leon’s True Colors Theatre Company. “Fannie: The Music and Life of Fannie Lou Hamer” is a one-woman show about the life of the legendary activist who led a movement for Black voting rights and raised awareness of poverty in America. The play is on stage from June 14 through July 10. Playwright Cheryl West and director Joy Vandervort-Cobb joined “City Lights” host Lois Reitzes via Zoom to talk about this under-recognized activist powerhouse and her moving portrayal by Atlanta actor Robin McGee.
Interview highlights follow below.
The rare brilliance and leadership of Fannie Lou Hamer:
“I had heard about her at school when I was in school, but she is certainly not at the level of people being familiar with her as we are with some of the other icons of the Civil Rights Movement, and yet she put her life on the line for the Civil Rights Movement. Some of that has a lot to do with that women were often taken for granted but actually did a lot to support the movement and were also on the front lines as leaders. And Fannie Lou Hamer, if she was anything, was a dynamic, incredible leader.”
“She was fond of saying, ‘I only have a sixth-grade education.’ Certain organizations that she found somewhat elitist would look down on her,” West said. “But again, she could rouse thousands. She could get people excited because one thing she could say — ‘I’ve lived it. What I am talking about for poor people, I have lived. I have overcome, I have worked, I have talked to them.’ So she never put herself above, and one of the things that people we talked to who knew her always said — she treated everybody the same. Whether they were a cardinal or a field hand, she would go and treat everyone the same.”
“I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired”:
“People would tell [Hamer], ‘Just hang on a little more time,’ which people tell us now about racial justice,” said West, “And she said, ‘But I’m tired. And my parents got tired. And I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired.’ And I think that as activists in this country, that’s the other part that we don’t get to hear sometimes is that you put your body, you put your mind, you put your spirit on the line, but you get tired because the assaults don’t stop. I mean, look at what’s happening right now in the country with Roe vs. Wade. It just continues.”
Vandervort-Cobb added, “Cheryl and I talked the first time we met, and I shared with her that having read the script and falling in love with the script, it was a nice reminder to me because I’d already been exhausted. That I don’t really have the right to back away from activism just because I’m tired, because the change is still necessary.” She went on, “To look at Ms. Hammer’s life and all that she went through — I mean, bullets with her name on them that did not get to her, but beatings that did … She had to be tired. This woman was extraordinary.”
Inspiring an audience through song:
“It does go back and forth in time, and the music helps, because Fannie Lou Hamer would always sing at her meetings because she felt that united voices were key to success of the movement because when someone is hitting you or beating you or traumatizing you, to hear someone else’s voice on the line with you would give you spirit and courage to keep going,” said West.
“Initially, when I wrote it, I wanted [the play] to be more of a rally, and we invited the audience to sing with us because many of the songs people knew, and so it’s written with the idea of the audience being very involved and singing those songs,” West explained. “Then when the pandemic hit, sometimes we could not invite the audience to sing along with us, but nevertheless, they always did sing, even through their masks … That sense of community and rallying together is part of the show.”
“Fannie: the Music and Life of Fannie Lou Hamer” is on stage at Kenny Leon’s True Colors Theatre Company from June 14 – to July 10. Tickets and more information are available at truecolorstheatre.org/event/fannie.
