Dallas NAACP My Day
By Dr. J. Ester Davis
THE FANNIE LOU HAMER STAGE PLAY
Fannie Lou Hamer (1917 – 1977) occupies a very unique space in our history and represents thousands of women born and raised in this time and space in our history. Her story is riveting because your imagination is supporting vivid thoughts combined with similar stories from family members we have heard before. For eighteen (18) years she worked as a sharecropper and timekeeper for a Mississippi Delta plantation owner. She was the youngest of twenty (20) children with an 8th grade education. Fannie Lou Hamer was in today’s language an in-demand public speaker. It all started when she attempted to vote but failed the required literacy test. Of course, she was fired and forced to move from place to place for protection. Her husband was not fired immediately because he was a tractor driver and needed to get the crops in on time.
Mzuri Moya Aimbaye, an award winning artist, presents an amazing academia One Woman Show. As actress, writer, makeup artist, producer, wardrobe mistress, assistant director, digital editor and more titles I do not have time to list, her performances have been sold out across the nation, recognized as the BEST SOLO Performance at the Black Theatre Festivals and so much more. Now . . . she is coming to Dallas compliments of the Dallas Chapter of the NAACP.. because our history is priceless. We have the baton now.
The best way to describe the “new” Dallas NAACP is in a basic line: “…his truth is marching on”.
Dr. Sharon Middlebrooks, President, is a perfect fit for this role. This Madame President grew up in the ‘country club’ spotlight of the unscripted civil rights era; .. meaning there were people working in concert at the top-and-bottom of the civil rights spectrum while gerrymandering was looking for a home, scripted, written, passed and executed into law. She grew up career-wise in a very fortunate position, working for one of the most powerful African American Statesman in our nation. Dr. I. H. Clayborn was listed for more than twenty(20)years as one of America’s Most Influential Leaders by Ebony Magazine. He was the Grand Sovereign Commander of the Prince Hall Masons. We should know and always remember that this group built low income housing, under the watchful eye of Sam Pierce, Undersecretary of Housing, (Jimmy Carter Administration) across the State of Texas. That is truly another unprecedented historic story.
I would be out-of-etiquette-order without mentioning three other statesman-in-our-nation, that lighted President Middlebrooks pathway of knowledge, experience and protocol. What is important here is all roads lead to Clayborn’s office because he was a phone call away from Thurgood Marshall, Benjamin Hooks, John Johnson, mayors, athletes, influencers and entertainers. At the top of the Dallas chart with devoted limitless hours to the Dallas NAACP’s truth was Attorney Fred Finch, Legal Redress, Ted Watkins, the World Champion of NAACP Memberships and Pastor Rhett James, who organized the boycott on H.L. Green and in the mix-of-the-lite-riot-to-demonstrations at Piccadilly’s Downtown Cafeteria. Bill Blair, Founding Publisher, of the Elite Newspaper did not really want to talk to you, and would advise you of same, if you did not have a NAACP membership. What an ideal job for a young professional afforded to our present president.
The Fannie Lou Hamer Stage Play is where you want to be on Sunday, July 31, 2022 at 1:00 PM. Just like Fannie Lou Hamer, the ‘fight for your life’ continues. Bring the young with you. The place is Lofty Spaces, 816 Montgomery Street, Dallas, Texas. The heat is on in more ways than we can count.
Dallasnaacp.com. Call 469.349.9525 or Ester Davis 214.376.9000. Donation $60.00. See you there.
