You can pray until you faint, but unless you get up and try to do something, God is not going to put it in your lap. Fannie Lou Hamer More Quotes by Fannie Lou Hamer More Quotes From Fannie Lou Hamer 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 one-day struggle people If this is a Great Society, I'd hate to see a bad one. Fannie Lou Hamer great-society hate ifs just because people are fat, it doesn't mean they are well fed. The cheapest foods are the fattening ones, not the most nourishing. Fannie Lou Hamer weight mean people This white man who is saying "it takes time." For three hundred and more years they have had "time," and now it is time for them to listen. Fannie Lou Hamer white men years If the white man gives you anything - just remember when he gets ready he will take it right back. We have to take for ourselves. Fannie Lou Hamer white giving men When I liberate others, I liberate myself. Fannie Lou Hamer social-justice diversity justice A black woman's body was never hers alone. Fannie Lou Hamer black-women black body To support whatever is right, and to bring in justice where weve had so much injustice. Fannie Lou Hamer injustice support justice We didnt come all this way for no two seats when all of us is tired. Fannie Lou Hamer tired two way Actually, the world and America is upset and the only way to bring about a change is to upset it more. Fannie Lou Hamer upset america world But you see now baby, whether you have a ph.d., d.d. or no d, we're in this bag together. And whether you are from Morehouse or Nohouse, we,re still in this bag together. Fannie Lou Hamer brotherhood together baby It is our right to stay here and we will stay and stand up for what belongs to us as American citizens, because they can't say that we haven't had patience. Fannie Lou Hamer american-citizens citizens havens America that is divided against itself cannot stand, and we cannot say we have all of this unity they say we have when black people are being discriminated against in every city in America I have visited. Fannie Lou Hamer cities america people It is only when we speak what is right that we stand a chance at night of being blown to bits in our homes. Can we call this a free country, when I am afraid to go to sleep in my own home in Mississippi?... I might not live two hours after I get back home, but I want to be a part of setting the Negro free in Mississippi. Fannie Lou Hamer home sleep country [On her Freedom Farm Cooperative:] If you give a hungry man food, he will eat it. [But] if you give him land, he will grow his own food. Fannie Lou Hamer land giving men if I fall, I will fall five-feet four-inches forward in the fight for freedom. Fannie Lou Hamer freedom fighting fall I saw in Chicago, on the street where I was visiting my sister-in-law, this "Urban Renewal" and it means one thing: "Negro removal." But they want to tear the homes down and put a parking lot there. Where are those people going? Where will they go? And as soon as Negroes take to the street demonstrating, one hears people say, "they shouldn't have done it." The world is looking at America and it is really beginning to show up for what it is really like. "Go Tell It on the Mountain." We can no longer ignore this, that America is not "the land of the free and the home of the brave." Fannie Lou Hamer sister-in-law home mean I remember, and I will never forget, one day - I was six years old and I was playing beside the road and this plantation owner drove up to me and stopped and asked me "could I pick some cotton." I told him I didn't know and he said, "Yes, you can. I will give you things that you want from the commissary store," and he named a huge list that he called off. I picked the 30 pounds of cotton that week, but I found out what actually happened was he was trapping me into beginning the work I was to keep doing and I never did get out of his debt again. Fannie Lou Hamer yes-you-can giving years Some things I found out in the National Convention I wasn't too glad I did find out. But we will work hard, and it was important to actually really bring this out to the open, the things I will say some people knew about and some people didn't; this stuff that has been kept under the cover for so many years. Actually, the world and America is upset and the only way to bring about a change is to upset it more. Fannie Lou Hamer hard-work america years White Americans today don't know what in the world to do because when they put us behind them, that's where they made their mistake... they put us behind them, and we watched every move they made. Fannie Lou Hamer white mistake moving
