From Mary Watkins “Dark River” (Act 2, Scene 6)
Fannie Lou Hamer Speaks
In this scene, Fannie Lou Hamer persuades the delegates of the Mississippi Freedom Party to reject an offer from Vice President Hubert Humphrey. In a previous scene, Humphrey has told the delegates that he will allow only two of the Freedom Party delegates, one white and one black, to be seated with the Mississippi Delegation at the convention. In spite of the pressure to back off, Fannie insists that the whole delegation must be seated and persuades the delegates to stand with her.
Listen to The Delegates Meet
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Music and lyrics ©2009, Mary Watkins, All Rights Reserved, BMI
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”
FANNIE LOU
We are getting strong messages
Of disapproval
from the Nervous Nellies,
and the Uncle Toms.
The party leaders
want us to keep a low profile,
accept their offer, go away
and let the Black “middle class”
lead the way.
And since we don’t agree with them
we are not going to bow to that.
CHORUS
No! No! No! No! No we won’t.
FANNIE LOU
While some of them was sitting in
Air conditioned offices,
And riding around
In big fancy cars
CHORUS
A-men, A-men, A-men!
FANNIE LOU
We were risking our lives
CHORUS
Yes we were, yes we were
risking our lives all day, all day
in the hot sun
FANNIE LOU
On back country roads
mile after mile in the hot summer sun.
We were working with the people every day
CHORUS
Every day, all day
we walked and we talked
All day in the summer sun
FANNIE LOU
We were working with the people every day.
CHORUS
Every day , all day we walked and we talked
All day in the summer sun
FANNIE LOU
Yes we did, yes we did!
CHORUS
Every day in the hot summer sun
FANNIE LOU
Lord knows
CHORUS
All day walkin’ and talkin’ with the people
FANNIE LOU
Yes we did, yes we did,
every day every one
everyone one of us
CHORUS
We have come this far by our faith
and we came here to expose
the corruption of Mississippi politics
FANNIE LOU
We’re here to tell the world!
We don’t need college degrees
to tell our own story!
We know who we are,
What we want
And why we want it!!
(APPLAUSE AND CHEERING)
CHORUS
We are here to expose
to the convention and to the world
the corruption of Mississippi Politics.
FANNIE LOU
We know who we are,
What we want
And why we want it!!
CHORUS
We know what we want
FANNIE LOU
And we know why we want it
CHORUS
We know who we are,
We know what we want.
And we don’t need nobody else
to try to tell our story.
We know who we are,
We know what we want .
And we don’t need nobody else,
to try to tell our story!
FANNIE LOU
The Freedom Party
should be seated here today
Music and lyrics ©2009, Mary Watkins, All Rights Reserved, BMI