Hello and welcome to this bonus episode of America A History Recorded straight after our recent episode, what is the Voting Rights Act?

I'm joined now by the guest from that episode, Nick Grant, to discuss this just a little bit more.

Hi, Nick.

Hi, Liam.

Good for you to hang on.

And I think it's really important in this episode to give people as much information as possible to really get that discussion and debate going so that these conversations that need to happen are happening at every level.

So I guess as a sort of extra nugget of wisdom for people, where could you recommend they look for that information?

Yeah, I think one thing that I wanted to talk about in the main episode but didn't get to was to raise the figure of funny Lou Hamer.

Now, one of the points I was really trying to push was that ordinary people at a grassroots level can make really important change and are central to things like the Voting Rights act being passed.

And Fannie Lou Hamer's a famous figure who I'd recommend people look up and kind of explore.

Just online would be a good place as there's a range of kind of really well written blog pieces about her life.

So she was a Mississippi sharecropper.

She was a mother of two and she attempted to register to vote first in 1962 and received like very kind of harsh backlash for those attempts to register to vote.

So she was fired from.

From the place of work her home was shot into.

She was intimidated, but she continued to try and register to vote.

There's a scene in the film Selma where she's kind of asked to take a literacy test in order to qualify to have the right to vote.

And she's given this really obscure part of the Mississippi Constitution that she has to respond to and you can see just all the kind of dubious ways in which white officials try to prevent black Americans to vote.

So she was a really important figure in terms of the push for voting rights, like on a personal level, but also like built a movement and campaign.

So she co founded something called the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party in 1964, which was open to all regardless of race.

And it became a parallel political party that was designed to encourage black political participation while challenging the stringently white nature of Mississippi's Democratic Party.

So what they did is they tried to challenge the seating of the state party at the Nationals Convention, the National Democratic Convention, and planned for August in 1964 in Atlantic City in New Jersey.

And as part of that, in terms of challenging that kind of all white nature of the, of the Democratic Party, in Mississippi challenging things like the white primary.

She gave really powerful testimony where she said, and she said, like most famously, I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired.

And she continued for the rest of her life to kind of to testify and to work on the Voting Rights Act.

She ultimately ran for Congress.

She organized different kind of freedom schools and encouraged African Americans to claim the rights that they had won and to talk about the power and the importance of voting rights as well.

So I think as someone who comes from the grassroots, who builds a movement, is so influential in terms of changing and shifting debates on civil rights and Voting Rights Act, I'd really encourage listeners to have a look at the life and the activism of Fannie Lou Hamer.

Yeah, it's a great recommendation and probable future episode of the podcast there as well, I think.

But Nick, thank you as always for your insight.

It's always much appreciated and we'll get you back on the podcast soon.

Yeah, thanks Liam.

And thank you so much for having me.

No worries.

Thanks Nick.

And to anyone listening as always, if you enjoy the podcast rate review, follow, support us and read up more.

All the links are in the show notes.

Thank you as always for listening and goodbye.