20 Anne Arundel County Women to Be Honored at Fannie Lou Hamer Awards Reception Oct. 4

 

Twenty women from across Anne Arundel County will be recognized for their leadership and contributions to civil and human rights during the annual Fannie Lou Hamer Awards Reception in Annapolis.

The reception will be held from 4 to 6 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 4, at the Pip Moyer Recreation Center, 273 Hilltop Lane. For details or to purchase tickets, visit. 

Sponsored by the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Committee of Anne Arundel County, the awards recognize women from various racial backgrounds who have excelled in their respective fields while working to advance civil and human rights in the region.

This year’s honorees include Elaine R. Bachmann; Francine Chambers-Diggs, Esquire; Anne Colt-Leitess; Mariah Davis; Maya Davis; Mrs. Toyan Espeut; Darlise Johnson; Angel Lewis-Lee; Dr. Tanya Millner; Mamie Marie Murray; Alva D. Offer; Samelia Mae Parker; Lynda V. Rice, Esquire; Julie M. Schablitsky; Jo Ann Scipio; Marlene Shanley; Emily Oland Squires; Camryn Elana Sydnor; Heaven White; and Alice Mahan Wyche.

The women join more than 100 previous honorees, including former U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski, Administrative Law Judge Tracey Warren Parker and former Annapolis Mayor Ellen Moyer. Carl Snowden, chair of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Committee, will serve as master of ceremonies.

“We congratulate all of the recipients of the Fannie Lou Hamer Awards, whose commitment to social justice is seen in the work that they do daily,” Mr. Snowden said. “These women run the gamut. They are educators, activists, immigrants, and they are committed to making America a better place for everyone.”

A committee of community residents selects the honorees each year from nominees who live or work in Anne Arundel County. According to the organization, Anne Arundel County is the only jurisdiction in Maryland that celebrates Hamer’s memory through awards of this nature.

Former Sen. Mikulski, who was honored with a Fannie Lou Hamer Award in 2009, reflected on the importance of people working toward change.

“We are living right now in a world that is fighting for change on many levels, from social unrest in our cities, to expansive international crises,” Ms. Mikulski said. “And while the news may seem grim, there is inspiration every day around the world as people come together to bring about peaceful change.”

Remembering Fannie Lou Hamer

Fannie Lou Hamer, who lived from 1917 to 1977, was an American voting rights activist, civil rights leader and philanthropist.

The youngest of 20 children born to Mississippi sharecropper parents, Ms. Hamer helped organize Mississippi Freedom Summer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. She later became vice chair of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and attended the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in that role.

Ms. Hamer ran for Congress in 1964 and 1965 and was seated as a member of Mississippi’s official delegation to the 1968 Democratic National Convention. She was also an outspoken critic of the Vietnam War.

Her work included grassroots Head Start programs, the Freedom Farm Cooperative in Sunflower County and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Poor People’s Campaign.

Ms. Hamer died at age 57. Her tombstone bears one of her best-known statements: “I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.”

Committee’s Work in Anne Arundel County

The Annapolis-based Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Committee Inc., founded in 1988, organizes events recognizing people whose work advances civil and human rights.

The committee has also helped establish several memorials in Anne Arundel County honoring Dr. King and other civil rights figures and advocates.

In 2006, a bronze statue of Dr. King was erected at Anne Arundel Community College after the committee raised more than $250,000. In 2011, the committee dedicated a plaque and garden tribute to Coretta Scott King at Sojourner Douglass College in Edgewater.

In 2013, the committee erected an Annapolis monument recognizing the Civil Rights Foot Soldiers who participated in the 1963 March on Washington.

The committee was also the lead sponsor of the “Guardians of the First Amendment” memorial, dedicated in 2021 to honor the five people killed during the 2018 mass shooting at The Capital newspaper.

A memorial to civil rights leader Malcolm X is scheduled to be dedicated Oct. 14 in Annapolis.

Proceeds from the committee’s events are being used to help pay debt associated with construction of the Malcolm X Memorial.

A dinner will follow Sunday’s Fannie Lou Hamer Awards program. Tickets are $50 and will not be sold at the door.

For additional information, call 301-538-6353 or 410-419-2208, or email arankin58@hotmail.com.