August 1964

Mississippi sharecropper and SNCC organizer Fannie Lou Hamer delivered a riveting televised testimony before the Credentials Committee of the Democratic National Convention in 1964 on behalf of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, describing the brutal violence faced by Black voters attempting to register. Her testimony shocked the nation and reshaped the Democratic Party's relationship with Black voters.

Fannie Lou Hamer's televised testimony before the Credentials Committee of the Democratic National Convention — describing beatings for trying to register to vote — was broadcast nationally and became one of the most powerful civil rights moments of the decade.

The MFDP's Hamer described beatings for trying to register to vote in televised testimony before the Democratic Party Credentials Committee. President Johnson called an emergency press conference to interrupt the live broadcast, but the networks aired it in full that evening.