A final plaque dedication ceremony will honor famed civil rights pioneer Fannie Lou Hamer 10:30 a.m. Monday at Unity Park.
Hamer’s plaque installation is the last part of the Unity Park Committee’s redesign of the public greenspace, which was remodeled last winter and finally opened to the public on Jan. 19’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Hamer’s family moved to Sunflower County in 1919, where they worked as sharecroppers. She eventually held a leadership role of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and helped organize Mississippi’s Freedom Summer.
Hamer, 59, died in Mound Bayou in 1977.
“It’s particularly important to honor the women of the civil rights movement because women did so many things at the front of the movement, as well as behind the scenes. (Hamer) represents the women of the civil rights movement, and helps complete that missing segment,” said Unity Park Committee Chairman Brother Rogers. “It’s a great feeling to have this portion of our efforts behind us now.”
The grassroots committee was formed by residents who were tired of seeing Unity Park’s plaques covered by tarps.
The public greenspace, located beside the Oktibbeha County Sheriff’s Department, were developed as part of the $2 million project that constructed the county education building in 2011.
The plaques, however, remained obscured from public view after the project was completed until January’s dedication ceremony.
Organizers redesigned the park — additional space was created by the removal of brick flower beds, and plaques were switched out to honor local and state civil rights figures — so the space could become a showcase for local civic pride and a destination for public events.
Plaques honoring MLK and former Miss. Gov. William Winter were kept, but new ones bearing likenesses of Medgar Evers, Douglas Conner and Hamer were installed. Another plaque honoring the historic “Game of Change,” when the Mississippi State University men’s basketball team defied the governor by playing an integrated Loyola University team in 1963, was also erected.
For their efforts and in-kind contributions, the Miss. Historical Society recently honored the committee, Oktibbeha County Board of Supervisors and Starkville aldermen with an award of merit for preserving important contributions to the state’s history.
Rogers said the group will now broach ideas toward developing a mural. Members previously pitched the idea of painting the side of the county education building, which faces the park and Douglas L. Conner Drive.
“We want the park to continue to change and continue to improve,” he said. “This is going to be a landmark for everyone in and outside of Starkville.”
January’s dedication ceremony also honored two activists key in the park’s development and redesign: Dorothy Bishop and Ava Moore.
Bishop, 74, and Moore, 65, died last year.
Speakers during the event all acknowledged how far the U.S. has come in terms of race relations but said residents must continue to treat King’s vision as a work in progress, as true harmony and understanding take effort, empathy and compassion.
“(We) honor those individuals that were willing to stand up and say we are all human beings and, more importantly, we are all God’s children,” said District 3 Supervisor Marvell Howard in January. “To those great people who stood up as a beacon of light in those dark days, we will always owe a debt of gratitude. We will continue to be that beacon wherever and whenever darkness tries to rear its ugly head. We were all born with a light; it is our choice to let it shine.”
Carl Smith covers Starkville and Oktibbeha County for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @StarkDispatch
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