In April 2022, the City of Winona Board of Aldermen unanimously approved a proclamation declaring an annual observation of June 9th as Fannie Lou Hamer Day. Proclamations were also presented from the Mississippi State Legislature and the office of U.S. Congressman Bennie Thompson.

Our nonprofit organization, Land Literacy and Legacy, is grateful and honored that we received encouragement, acknowledgement, and resources from civic, city, county, state, and national entities. Without the graciousness of Sacred Heart Catholic Church, the owner of the property where the jail once stood, our efforts to commemorate and honor Mrs. Hamer would not have come to fruition. With so many advocating for us, we soon realized that a routine marker dedication would not cover the breadth and depth of our landowner advocacy, civil rights, and social justice work. We orchestrated a four-day commemoration and celebration that delivered our vision to create awareness of the importance of local and national history through educating and building community.

The inaugural four-day annual event was branded Bridging Winona: Past Present Future, in alignment with our intention that the event would serve as the catalyst to inspire multi-generational and ethnic groups coming together to atone, discuss, and build a stronger and more progressive community in Winona and regionally. Euvester Simpson, the only living activist of the 1963 jail beatings shared, “Bridging Winona can be a model for other towns not just in Mississippi, but across this country.”

Ms. Simpson returned to Winona for the first time since 1963 to give remarks at the pre-unveiling program. Mrs. Hamer’s daughter Jacqueline Hamer Flakes gave the keynote address. Reena Evers (daughter of Medgar Evers) and Charles McLaurin (SNCC organizer in Sunflower County) were scheduled to attend, but both were sidelined by illness. A small-scale replica of the touring sculpture Harriet Tubman - The Journey to Freedom - was personally delivered to the marker site by Emmy and Academy Award winning sculptor Wesley Wofford, in homage to Mrs. Hamer’s legacy and to consecrate the marker installation.

Following the program and marker unveiling, a day of community fellowship, voter registration, vegetable box giveaways, signups for free smoke detectors, information vendors, oral history interviews, food trucks, children’s activities, and performances of spoken word and music occurred at the Winona Community House. So much of the work of Land Literacy and Legacy is dedicated to grassroots outreach to empower marginalized landowners. Our work is a natural offshoot of Mrs. Hamer’s Freedom Farm mission. On Friday the Fannie Lou Hamer Legacy Landowner Summit was held. Presentations were given by the USDA Farm Service Agency, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, National Park Service, and Natural Carbon Exchange. Attendees gained knowledge of sustainable agriculture, forestry, economic development, horticulture, agri-tourism and agriculture tax and accounting. Day three was dedicated to a walking tour of Winona and the Inaugural Fannie Lou Hamer Legacy Tour, a day-long experiential learning bus tour guided by HISTORICH, a tourism and educational services company. The tour included stories from Mrs. Hamer’s daughter and journeyed through the Mississippi Delta traveling in the footsteps of Fannie Lou Hamer. The weekend culminated on Sunday with a multi-denominational Community Healing Service that was hosted by Winona Baptist Church.

YEAR TWO: June 9 - June 12, 2023 This year was a milestone year marking sixty years after the Montgomery County Jail beatings of Fannie Lou Hamer and her voting rights colleagues. We were excited that our plan to unveil a Mississippi Freedom Trail marker on the site of Staley’s Café and Continental Trailways Bus Station progressed, and installation preparation began with the assistance of the Mississippi Humanities Council. The site is where the civil rights activists were arrested by police. We view our plans as transformative and inspirational as we continue the work of bridging community in Winona and beyond!

We presented the following free events that provided opportunities that will guide Winona and the region in understanding the relevance of contemporary issues concerning democracy, race, and social justice as well as the importance of community engagement for transformative collective change.

Fannie Lou Hamer Legacy Landowner Summit highlighted the Mississippi Center for Justice’s Heir’s Property presentation that gives legal information that will help families retain their property. The USDA Farm Service, Natural Resources Conservation Services and Land Literacy and Legacy provided additional information for sustainable practices for landowners.

A screening of ARound Robin Production Company’s film, This Little Light of Mine: The Legacy of Fannie Lou Hamer was followed by a panel discussion led by its creator, Emmy-award winning television host, journalist, producer and moderator Robin N. Hamilton and Dr. Leslie B. McLemore, SNCC activist and one of the founders of the Fannie Lou Hamer Institute on Citizenship and Democracy at Jackson State University.

It became painfully obvious after our inaugural year that the history of the jail beatings and Fannie Lou Hamer’s story was unknown to many who lived in Winona. We knew we needed to present a creative expression that could be understood by all ages. We produced a theatrical offering at the Montgomery County Performing Arts Center that was inspired by award-winning author Carole Boston Weatherford’s children’s book Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer - Spirit of the Civils Rights Movement. There were three performances, that were enthusiastically received by the diverse Winona community and beyond. Nell Davis of Winona created the book’s adaptation and directed the play. The third night of the performance was standing room only. Chairs had to be brought in. The theater was filled to capacity due to word of mouth. People from outlying areas and other counties were spreading the word. Church groups came to the last performance from as far as Attala and Webster counties and they all loved it. The reviews and comments that followed the performance were tremendous.

YEAR THREE: June 7 – June 10, 2024 Unveiling of Mississippi Freedom Trail Marker: Brutality in Winona Recognizing the historical importance of the Staley’s Café site, the quest to install a Mississippi Freedom Trail Marker began in mid-2023.The June 8th unveiling ceremony was held at Winona Baptist Church in Winona. The permanent marker site is located at 100 North Applegate Street, in front of Muno's Stop N Go near the corner of U.S. Highway 51 and Summit Street. Hosted by Pam Junior, Director Emerita of the Two Mississippi Museums, the program featured remarks by U.S. Representative Bennie Thompson, Reena Evers Everett, daughter of Medgar Evers, Ambassador Andrew Young via video and civil rights activist Euvester Simpson, the last surviving member of those arrested with Hamer.

Fannie Lou Hamer Legacy Landowner Summit presentation topics were: Overview of Land Stewardship presented by the USDA/NRCS/FSA. Mississippi Forestry Commission and Nick Thomas, President of Stewart Link (land conservation practices). Conservation Easements: A Tool to Protect Family Land was presented by Liz Barber, Mississippi Forest Legacy Program. The panelists were Teona Williams, Ph.D., Historian of Civil Rights and Environmental History at Rutgers University. Tiffany LaShae, Soil Scientist and Simone Lightfoot of Light Green Energy, LLC.

Our community engagement component was the “back by popular demand” performance of Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer.

YEAR FOUR: June 6 – June 9, 2025 Land Literacy and Legacy worked tirelessly from 2020-2024 to install historical markers in Winona to honor and commemorate Mrs. Hamer. It was critical that the markers were placed at the jail site of the horrific beatings as well as the site where the SNCC activists were accosted by police. The two markers represent a public reckoning of the tragedy of the June 9, 1963. The recent Staley’s Café installation is a Mississippi Freedom Trail marker.

The City of Atlantic City proudly hosted representatives from the State of New Jersey and State of Mississippi for an unveiling ceremony at Kennedy Plaza on August 20, 2024 for a Mississippi Freedom Trail marker commemorating the efforts of the Mississippi Democratic Party, led by Fannie Lou Hamer, during the 1964 Democratic National Convention at Boardwalk Hall. This is the first Mississippi Freedom Trail marker outside of Mississippi.

President Joe Biden awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously to Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer on January 4, 2025.

We are proud to have been engaged in the recent efforts to commemorate and honor Mrs. Hamer’s voting rights and racial justice work. There is still more work to be done. She was tireless and so are we…

In 2025 we are exploring the contemporary issues of education in America, expanding our oral history project, launching a new bus tour tracing the footsteps of Fannie Lou Hamer and Emmett Till who arrived in Mississippi at the Winona Train Depot.

Monica M. White, Ph.D. is the Distinguished Chair of Integrated Environmental Studies and associate professor of Environmental Justice at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. White will share her investigative research of Black grassroots organizations that are engaged in the development of sustainable community food systems.

Emmett Till to Fannie Lou Hamer: A Heritage Freedom Tour

The experiential learning bus tour departs from Winona and travels to Greenwood, Money, Sumner and Ruleville, MS. Includes tours of the Emmett Till Interpretive Center, Fannie Lou Hamer Museum and historical marker sites.

A dance performance presented by Tumble with SmallZ Fun & Fitness at the Montgomery County Performing Arts Center. The presentation is inspired by award-winning authors Juanita Gambrel Floyd and Sara W. Berry’s children’s book Summer of 1969. The book tells of Floyd’s journey of school integration as a young child. Floyd will expand on that story and lead a community conversation and book signing after the performance.