Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement Review
By Kelly Hartman
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Weatherford, Carole Boston. Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement. Massachusetts: Candlewick Press, 2015 ISBN 9781518115851
PLOT SUMMARY
Written in free verse, Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer: Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement tells the true story of Fannie Lou Hamer. Born to a sharecropper's family in the deep south in 1917, Fannie discovered that she must use her voice to fight for the freedom and rights all black people deserved. This collection of poems serves as a timeline from the unfairness she endured as a child to the brutality she faced as an adult when she dared to stand up against the racial inequality in the south. In the end these poems celebrate all of her accomplishments and contributions as a female leader in the civil rights movement.
CRITICAL ANALYSIS
In Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement, Carole Boston Weatherford balances a story with beautifully crafted verse paired with hard, cold facts about Hamer's difficult journey. Cleverly designed for younger and more advanced readers alike, Weatherford shares the central theme of racial injustices, while weaving her story through short poems about this iconic leader. Each poem pays tribute to pivotal events in Hamer's life. With carefully chosen titles like, FAIR and Worse off than Dogs, the reader is enticed to read on to encounter a historical timeline in free verse. Told in first person through Fannie Lou's eyes, the reader is emerged in her life story.
The pages drip with Fannie Lou's voice and her slave roots are evident within each poem. Phrases like "Chile, I am proof that the Delta birthed the blues" and "Our so called share of the crop, never be enough to pay back the money we borrowed from the owner" beg for this book to be read aloud to students.
With poetic elements of imagery in, "We stole the president's thunder, and our support swelled like a storm cloud.", Weatherford displays her strength to give her readers something to visualize and to feel as they read each line. Metaphor and simile phrases like "Where the soil was as rich as black folks was poor, where cotton was king and Jim Crow was law." help the reader to not only know that this was the harsh reality of racial inequality; the verse invites the reader to feel it with their heart, as well.
Weatherford's deliberate use of sound helps this story to roll off of the pages and off of the reader's tongue. Alliteration helps to effortlessly move the plot along in phrases like, "Sunup to sundown; dew to dark, can see to can't; doggone dirt poor doing without." and "Same sorry situation every season." When Weatherford wants to drive home one of Fannie's points, she uses repetition like, "Hardship after hardship."; "Songs that really sank down in me, powerful message songs." and "not a single minute, not a single note."
Within each poem, the reader is left with Fannie Lou Hamer's mommas's message, "Black is beautiful." The poems pay tribute to a woman who had reason to sing the blues throughout her life, but Weatherford focuses on the bigger theme with the last line of the poem, "Maybe I had won after all." The appendages of the author's notes, timeline, source notes, and other resources serve as a reminder that Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer: Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement is much more than a beautiful poem; it is a record of Hamer's contribution to civil rights in our world.
AWARD AND REVIEW EXCERPTS
Coretta Scott King Award, 2016
John Steptoe Award for New Talent, 2016
Caldecott Honor, 2016
Robert F. Sibert Honor, 2016
CONNECTIONS
Gather More Biographical Poetry
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Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave 031610731X
Audio Recordings
Online Resources
Timeline
Students will choose 10 key events in Fannie Lou Hamer's life and create a timeline. With the timeline, students will add an illustration for each event. The illustrations by Ekua Holmes will serve as an inspiration.
Writing Connection
Using Voice of Freedom as a mentor text, students will choose three events from their lives, create a subtitle for each event, and write a free verse poem for each.
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