Vice President Kamala Harris is accepting the Democrats’ presidential nomination Thursday, exactly 60 years after another Black woman mesmerized the nation with a speech that still resonates in American politics. Fannie Lou Hamer was a leader of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. In 1964, the racially integrated group challenged seating of an all-white Mississippi delegation to the Democratic National Convention. Hamer told the credentials committee about losing her home and being beaten because of civil rights activities. One of Mississippi's current congressman, Democrat Bennie Thompson, met Hamer in the 1960s when he was a college student. Thompson says it's important to ensure democracy is for everybody, not just the wealthy.
