CBH Talks: Indomitable Spirit: Civil Rights Leader Fannie Lou Hamer
Brutally beaten because she wanted to vote, Fannie Lou Hamer, the 20th child of Mississippi Delta sharecroppers, carried her fury to the 1964 Democratic Convention where her searing speech opened eyes across the country to the violence of Southern racists. In her deeply researched biography Walk With Me, Kate Clifford Larson traces Hamer’s remarkable life: her hardships, fierce commitment to justice, and the family and faith that bolstered her work. Join Larson as she discusses Hamer’s role in the Civil Rights Movement with two women who speak personally about what her example means to them: Karen Hill, President and CEO of the Harriet Tubman Home, and Cynthia Copeland, President of The Institute for the Exploration of Seneca Village History.
This is the first of two BPL programs about Fannie Lou Hamer. Find out more about the second event here.
This program is part of the multi-faceted public history project "Brooklyn Resists" which includes an exhibition at the Center for Brooklyn History (128 Pierrepont Street), a collecting initiative, website, curriculum, as well as regular evening programs.
Participants
Dr. Kate Clifford Larson is the author of Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero; Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter; and The Assassin’s Accomplice: Mary Surratt and the Plot to Kill Abraham Lincoln. She has served as an expert consultant on feature film scripts, documentaries, museum exhibits, public history initiatives, and numerous publications, and appeared on CBS Sunday Morning, the BBC, PBS, C-Span, and NPR. Larson is currently a Brandeis Women’s Studies Research Center Scholar. Her latest book is Walk with Me: A Biography of Fannie Lou Hamer, released in September 2021.
Karen Hill spent more than 30 years working on affordable housing development including a federal appointment to implement the court's order to desegregate the City of Yonkers when she was asked to protect and preserve Harriet Tubman's legacy and 32-acre property in Auburn, New York. As President and CEO of the Harriet Tubman Home, Inc. she successfully pursued federal legislation to have the homestead become one of the newest units of the National Park Service. Earlier Hill was a program director for the National Urban League, Chief Executive of the Affordable Housing Implementation Office, and Chief Executive of the American Homeowner Education & Counseling Institute. She was appointed by New York Senators Schumer and Gillibrand to the Women’s Suffrage Centennial Commission for the 100th anniversary.
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Cynthia R. Copeland is a public historian and educator with teaching and learning affiliations at New York University-Steinhardt, Bank Street College of Education, Teachers College and a host of non-profit cultural and educational institutions throughout the country. She is also President of the Institute for the Exploration of Seneca Village History and co-chair of the Reparations Committee for the Episcopal Diocese of New York.
Brutally beaten because she wanted to vote, Fannie Lou Hamer, the 20th child of Mississippi Delta sharecroppers, carried her fury to the 1964 Democratic Convention where her searing speech opened eyes across the country to the violence of Southern racists. In her deeply researched biography Walk With Me, Kate Clifford Larson traces Hamer’s remarkable life: her hardships, fierce commitment to justice, and the family and faith that bolstered her work. Join Larson as she discusses Hamer’s role in the Civil Rights Movement with two women who speak personally about what her example means to them: Karen Hill, President and CEO of the Harriet Tubman Home, and Cynthia Copeland, President of The Institute for the Exploration of Seneca Village History.
This is the first of two BPL programs about Fannie Lou Hamer. Find out more about the second event here.
This program is part of the multi-faceted public history project "Brooklyn Resists" which includes an exhibition at the Center for Brooklyn History (128 Pierrepont Street), a collecting initiative, website, curriculum, as well as regular evening programs.
Participants
Dr. Kate Clifford Larson is the author of Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero; Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter; and The Assassin’s Accomplice: Mary Surratt and the Plot to Kill Abraham Lincoln. She has served as an expert consultant on feature film scripts, documentaries, museum exhibits, public history initiatives, and numerous publications, and appeared on CBS Sunday Morning, the BBC, PBS, C-Span, and NPR. Larson is currently a Brandeis Women’s Studies Research Center Scholar. Her latest book is Walk with Me: A Biography of Fannie Lou Hamer, released in September 2021.
Karen Hill spent more than 30 years working on affordable housing development including a federal appointment to implement the court's order to desegregate the City of Yonkers when she was asked to protect and preserve Harriet Tubman's legacy and 32-acre property in Auburn, New York. As President and CEO of the Harriet Tubman Home, Inc. she successfully pursued federal legislation to have the homestead become one of the newest units of the National Park Service. Earlier Hill was a program director for the National Urban League, Chief Executive of the Affordable Housing Implementation Office, and Chief Executive of the American Homeowner Education & Counseling Institute. She was appointed by New York Senators Schumer and Gillibrand to the Women’s Suffrage Centennial Commission for the 100th anniversary.
Cynthia R. Copeland is a public historian and educator with teaching and learning affiliations at New York University-Steinhardt, Bank Street College of Education, Teachers College and a host of non-profit cultural and educational institutions throughout the country. She is also President of the Institute for the Exploration of Seneca Village History and co-chair of the Reparations Committee for the Episcopal Diocese of New York.
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