Celebration for Winona’s inaugural Fannie Lou Hamer day will be a four-day event of racial healing and education.
Hamer, a native of Montgomery County, moved to Ruleville with her husband, Perry Hamer, and later worked to register voters in the 1960s during the Civil Rights Movement with Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, according to womenshistory.org.
While traveling from Charleston, S.C. on a voter registration drive, she and several other activists stopped at a bus station on June 9, 1963, in Winona, where they were arrested by local authorities for sitting at a “whites only” counter, according to womenshistory.org.
This year on June 9, local citizens and welcomed visitors will honor Hamer’s memory with an unveiling of a historical marker at the old Winona Jail site at the intersection of Sterling Avenue and Oak Drive.
A 2 p.m. program will be held at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, where fellow activist Euvestor Simpson will speak and Hamer’s daughter, Jackie Hamer Flakes, will deliver the keynote, according to Vickie Roberts-Ratliff, event coordinator.
Others who worked with Hamer, such as her campaign manager Charles McLaurin are expected to be in attendance, according to Roberts-Ratliff.
“It’s going to be a great day,” said Donna Powell Pope, event manager.
Pope said a film crew from Sunflower Film Academy will be on site recording oral interviews of locals who will be sharing personal experiences of what happened during the movement.
The unveiling will follow the program at the jail site, where Flakes and Simpson will have the honor of revealing Winona’s new edition to its history, Roberts-Ratliff said.
Winona Mayor Aaron Dees will read the proclamation the Winona Board of Alderman signed earlier this year, designating June 9 as Fannie Lou Hamer Day. She said information on voter registration will be available in the parking lot along with representatives from the National Wildlife Federation, who will provide details on Mississippi Rivers.
Roberts-Ratliff said Connecting Winona will host bingo for senior citizens and show a PBS documentary on Hamer, while food trucks of local vendors will be on site throughout the afternoon.
Winona Baptist Church will host a Landowner’s Summit at 9 a.m. on June 10, according to Roberts-Ratliff.
“Landowners can learn how to be good stewards of their land,” said Roberts-Ratliff.
Landowners will be able to gather information from representatives from the United States Department of Agriculture Farm Services, Natural Resources Conservation, Mississippi Forestry Commission, National Capitol Exchange and an accounting firm from North Carolina, Roberts-Ratliff said.
On Saturday, June 11, attendees can join Flakes on a bus ride to tour the sites of the Winona bus station and jail, then travel to Hamer’s home in Ruleville, Williams Chapel Church, Fannie Lou Hamer Museum, Knights of Taborian Hospital and Peter’s Pottery, according to Pope.
