Former sharecropper Fannie Lou Hamer’s Congressional testimony is so powerful that President Johnson calls an impromptu press conference to get her off the air. But his plan backfires.
Fearing that an MFDP victory would result in his losing Southern support to Republican opponent Barry Goldwater, President Lyndon Johnson preempted Hamer’s televised testimony with a press conference. But later that night, the major news networks broadcast the former sharecropper’s shocking story of the racist brutality she suffered simply for registering to vote and encouraging other black citizens to do likewise.
Fannie Lou Hamer’s Congressional Testimony
