Dear Scout

Here is a letter I wrote to Harper Lee on my way to Sunflower.County, Mississippi.

Dear Scout,

I know you were from Alabama but I’m on my way to your sister state, Mississippi. 

I’m going to Sunflower County, once home to my hero, Fannie Lou Hamer. 

Why is she my hero? 

Well, she was a Black woman in the Jim Crow south, in the Jim Crowest place in the south.

Mississippi was like concrete laid down by demagogues like Senator James O. Eastland, who was cut from the same cloth as a Senator from my home state, Strom Thurman, and a Governor from your home state, George Wallace. 

They all were white supremacist and ‘segregation forever’ people.

What did they think about Fannie Lou? 

They sure treated her like she was a 2nd class citizen, like a person who was less of a human being than they were.

     

But, do you know what? 

There was a crack in that concrete. 

It was made by the Civil Rights Movement and all of the people who were a part of the Beloved Community the CRM was trying to build. 

And do you know what else? 

Through that crack grew Fannie Lou. 

She lived in Sunflower County. 

She was a sunflower.

One of my favorite facts about sunflowers is they can absorb and transform radiation. 

Fannie Lou was able to absorb and transformed racism.

One of my favorite speeches in American history was the one she gave on behalf of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party to the Credentials Committee at the 1964 Democratic Convention demanding to be seated with the delegation from her state, demanded that the delegation be representative of ALL Mississippians, not just white males.

It was a beautiful, ingenious, wonderful, courageous speech from a daughter of Mississippi soil, a salt of the Earth person, a light for the country.

President Lyndon Johnson tried to preempt her speech by holding a televised press conference, but people saw it afterward and were moved by it.

She helped us see that we all, ALL of us, are human beings made from the dust of the Earth and the breath of God and of inestimable worth.

I thank her for that.

And I thank you for writing To Kill A Mockingbird because it shines a light on white supremacy and helps me ask myself what I can do to help build the Beloved Community.

I want to step into Fannie Lou’s skin and walk around in it.

     

I want to step into your overalls and write in them.

                                                               

In friendship,

                                                                            T

P.S. Did you know in 1969, Fannie Lou launched a Freedom Farm Cooperative that was built on 640 acres and had a coop store, boutique, sewing enterprise and 200 units of low-income housing? She was an amazingly awesome and awesomely amazing person.