A Prayer For Friday

Fannie Lou Hamer

§ “And I’ve been tired so long, now I am sick and tired of being sick and tired, and we want a change.”

§ “A house divided against itself cannot stand; America is divided against itself and without their considering us human beings, one day America will crumble.”

§ “And if we want America to be a free society we have to stop telling lies. Because we’re not free and you know we’re not free.”

§ “You can pray until you faint, but if you don’t get up and try to do something, God is not going to put it in your lap. And I believe tonight, that one day in Mississippi—if I have to die for this—we shall overcome.”

§ “I addressed him and told him and said, ‘I didn’t try to register for you. I tried to register for myself.’ I had to leave that same night.”

§ “That’s why it is called that instead of the “land of the free and the home of the brave,” it’s called in Mississippi “the land of the tree and the home of the grave.”

§ “Yes, a lot of people will roll their eyes at me today. But I’m going to tell you just like it is.”

§ “This probably don’t sound too good to everybody. But if I can’t tell the truth—just tell me to sit down—because I have to tell it like it is.”

§ “Sometimes it seem like to tell the truth today is to run the risk of being killed. But if I fall, I’ll fall five feet four inches forward in the fight for freedom. I’m not backing off.”

§ “And we can no longer ignore the fact that we can’t sit down and wait for things to change. Because as long as they can keep their feet on our neck, they will always do it. But it’s time for us to stand up and be women and men.”

§ “And we’re the only race in America that had one man had to march through a mob crew just to go to school, which was James H. Meredith. We don’t have anything to be ashamed of. All we have to do is trust God and launch out into the deep. You can pray until you faint, but if you don’t get up and try to do something, God is not going to put it in your lap.”

§ “If the white man gives you anything— just remember when he gets ready, he will take it right back. We have to take care of ourselves.”

§ “Sin is beginning to reproach America today and we want what is rightfully ours.”

§ “My mother bought me the first Black doll I had ever seen… The only doll that she ever bought me was a Black doll. And what my mother was doing I couldn’t understand it then. But I understand now. She was at that time teaching me to respect myself.”

§ “When I liberate myself, I liberate others. If you don’t speak out, ain’t anybody going to speak out for you.”

§ “I always said if I lived to get grown and had a chance, I was going to try to get something for my mother and I was going to do something for the black man of the South if it would cost my life; I was determined to see that things were changed.”

§ “I feel better than I’ve felt in a long time because all of these people here, we got to do something. And we’ve been down so long, we ain’t got no other way to go but up.”

§ “Freedom is not something that’s put in your lap, you got to stand up.”

§ “It’s one thing I don’t want you to say tonight after I finish—and it won’t be long—I don’t want to hear you say, ‘Honey, I’m behind you.’ Well, move, I don’t want you back there. Because you could be two hundred miles behind. I want you to say, ‘I’m with you.’ And we’ll go up this freedom road together.”

§ “So, whether you black as a skillet or white as a sheet, we are made from the same blood and we are on our way!”

§ “The changes we have to have in this country are going to be for liberation of all people—because nobody’s free until everybody’s free.”

§ “If I hate you because you hate me, I’m no better than you are.”

§ “Never to forget where we came from and always praise the bridges that carried us over.”