Newark Mayor: Hamer’s Advocacy Should be Inspiration to Students
Professor of Music Beverly Vaughn and her choir, the Freedom Singers, performed Fannie Lou Hamer's favorite gospel songs at the start of the 22nd annual Human and Civil Rights Symposium on Tuesday, Oct. 7.
Galloway, N.J. –Fannie Lou Hamer, an activist for voting and civil rights during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, is known famously for saying the words, “I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired.”
However, during Oct. 7’s Human and Civil Rights Symposium bearing her name, this year’s keynote speaker Newark Mayor Ras Baraka shed light on a lesser-known quote of hers when sharing her story.
“Fannie Lou Hamer said that the flag is soaked with our blood,” Baraka said. “She was a sharecropper from Ruleville, Mississippi, who was evicted because the plantation owner told her she had to withdraw her voter registration. She refused and was later arrested and beaten in jail under the orders of the State Highway Patrol.
“This is what it looked like for us,” Baraka continued. “This is what we had to go through in order to be part of this democracy, to actually build one here in this country.”
According to Baraka, Hamer’s powerful advocacy should serve as inspiration to the next generation of scholar-activists sitting in Stockton University’s Performing Arts Center, saying that while today’s current climate is challenging, it also “pales in comparison to what others endured.”
“It pains me how we get so used to inequity, and that it's become how we justify and rationalize what is happening today,” Baraka said. “How have we become averse to sacrifice when we wouldn't be in this room without what others had to deal with? We belong in these rooms, schools and places. Why? Because somebody already paid the price for you to be here.”
Baraka concluded his speech by sharing the story of how his grandfather boarded a train from the Carolinas to Newark to escape the South’s Jim Crow laws, where he became a shoe shiner in a barbershop.
“He shined shoes until he became a social worker. And his son became a renowned and international poet, writer, essayist and thinker. And his grandson became the mayor of the city of Newark,” Baraka said. “When I ran for governor, I would often think of his story, because he would have never imagined, as a boy in the Jim Crow South, that his grandson would actually be a contender for the governor of the state of New Jersey.
“This is not a sad story; this is a story to rejoice,” Baraka continued. “What I’m saying is that we rise from ashes and out of fire, and that no matter how difficult and ugly the situation is, we advance ourselves anyway.”
Shortly before Baraka’s electrifying keynote, the symposium began with a variety of performances, including a gospel choral performance of Hamer’s favorite songs by Stockton Professor of Music Beverly Vaughn and the Freedom Singers and a jazz dance by Psychology major Kiana Bryan, who owns and operates Black Essence Performing Arts.
Christina Noble, an alumna of Stockton’s Master of American Studies program, and Lee Bryant, assistant dean for Stockton’s School of Health Sciences, performed an interpretive dance and dramatic reading of “Wise I” by Amiri Baraka.
When welcoming the audience to the program, Shane Moore, president of the Unified Black Student Society, encouraged the audience to acknowledge the sacrifices made and the courage shown by activists like Hamer, which allowed students the freedom and opportunities they currently have.
“As we gather here, let's reflect on the progress that we have made since her courageous activism during a time when Black Americans were denied the right to vote, access to quality education and opportunities for advancement. Without the strength and perseverance of Fannie Lou Hamer and many others before us, we would not be in the position we are today,” said the Health Sciences major. “So, I encourage everyone, if you haven't already, to go register and make sure you go vote. That is something that we take for granted, and we need to take advantage of that, especially with the election coming up soon.”
In his remarks, Stockton President Joe Bertolino echoed Moore's sentiments and challenged the audience to remain engaged in the local community to honor Hamer's legacy, calling it “a responsibility.”
“Voting is how we honor the sacrifices of those who marched, organized and refused to be silenced,” Bertolino said. “Elections aren’t abstract. The choices we make at the polls shape our neighborhoods, education systems, environment and our future.
“We gather each year to honor the extraordinary legacy of Fannie Lou Hamer, a woman who refused to accept injustice as normal and believed that ordinary people could do extraordinary things when they acted with faith and courage. She reminds us that democracy is not guaranteed, but that it must be nurtured, protected and, when necessary, fought for,” Bertolino continued.
– Story by Loukaia Taylor
– Photos by Mark Melhorn
Activist Ndaba Mandela Inspires Students to Take Action
October 10, 2024
Galloway, N.J. – The first time Ndaba Mandela met his grandfather, he was 7 years old and had just completed a 12-hour trip from Johannesburg to the Eastern Cape of South Africa.
The 21st keynote speaker for the annual Fannie Lou Hamer Human & Civil Rights Symposium at Stockton University was told by his parents that his grandfather — Nelson Mandela, an internationally recognized activist and opponent of South African apartheid — was under house arrest.
As a child, he didn’t understand the reason behind his grandfather’s captivity or that he was in trouble at all — just that the nice mansion that he was currently resting and being fed in after a long trip had a kind man who undoubtedly spoiled him.
Who could blame the child for turning to his parents and quipping, “When I grow up, I want to go to jail too.”
This story was just one of many that Ndaba Mandela shared about his grandfather during the Oct. 8 event. A couple of years after that fateful visit, Ndaba Mandela’s father started taking university classes and decided to leave the boy in Nelson's care. He proved to be an at-times strict but ultimately very caring parental figure for him.
The audience laughed as Ndaba Mandela described a time in which he shirked one of his responsibilities and was subsequently sent to the front lawn with a blanket for a night under the stars, only to be ushered back into the house just before nightfall.
60 years ago, to this day, Fannie Lou Hamer traveled from Ruleville, Mississippi, to Atlantic City and stood before the Democratic National Convention to challenge the all-white delegation representing her home state.
Her bravery was met with jeering, vitriol and even censorship as television broadcasts quickly cut off her speech from reaching the homes of the convention’s constituents. However, her plea for justice and civil rights still resounded all over the world, especially when she took her story all the way to the Capitol in order to protest the 1964 Mississippi House election in which she and the rest of the state’s Black population were barred from voting in.
