Voter Registration and Grassroots Leadership

In August 1962, Hamer joined other Black residents traveling to the Sunflower County courthouse to register to vote. Plantation owner B. D. Marlow demanded that she withdraw her application; when she refused, he evicted her, and further violence followed.

Rather than ending her involvement, that retaliation pushed Hamer toward full-time organizing. She recruited and encouraged other residents, using plain speech, testimony, and song to turn individual fear into collective action.