Kay Mills

"This Little Light of Mine: The Life of Fannie Lou Hamer" was reissued in paperback in August 2007 by the University Press of Kentucky with a new foreword by Marian Wright Edelman. This edition is part of the series, "Civil Rights and the Struggle for Black Equality in the Twentieth Century."

Comments about the biography of Fannie Lou Hamer:

“A riveting biography...In making sure we see Fannie Lou Hamer in full, Kay Mills has done more than render a biography that is true to its subject. She has provided a history that helps us to understand the choices made by so many black men and women of Hamer’s generation, who, unwilling to leave the South they grew up in, somehow found the courage to join a movement in which they risked everything.”
“History is full of courageous individuals who defy a society’s unjust legal and customary circumscriptions. The courage of these extraordinary people, even in the face of death, has inspired countless others to join mass movements to throw off the yoke of suppression. Two such American martyrs of a short generation ago readily come to mind: The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X. Born at different class levels, they entered young adulthood at opposite poles of social acceptance: King was a privileged theology student; Malcolm was a criminal. As African Americans, however, each was transformed by the crucible of consciousness in the face of injustice, a fiery test that had everything to do with their race and nothing to do with their class. Fannie Lou Hamer was a 44-year-old Mississippi sharecropper when she too faced that searing test on an already hot day in August 1962. She simply tried to register to vote, a constitutional right that she was denied because of the blackness of her skin. Reading about the hostile white reaction to Hamer’s bold act in This Little Light of Mine, Kay Mills’s new biography of Hamer, one is forced to pause and consider that this black daughter of the Old South might have been braver than King and Malcolm.
“The life of this heroic woman is going to inspire people for centuries to come. Hooray. It’s down on paper. Some eye-opening details about events of the '60s. Altogether a first-rate job.”
“With skill, compassion and authenticity, author Kay Mills tells [Fannie Lou Hamer’s] story and that of the movement for human rights, which Mrs. Hamer inspired for more than a decade. It is an epic that nurtures us as we confront today’s challenges and helps us `Keep Hope Alive.’”
“Thank you, Kay Mills, for capturing the hope and faith that guided the extraordinary life of Fannie Lou Hamer. Not only does This Little Light of Mine recount a vital part of America’s history, but it lights our future as readers are inspired anew by Mrs. Hamer’s spirit, courage, and commitment.”
“The story of Fannie Lou Hamer is a story of the power of the human spirit, yearning to be free, yearning just to be. This book is the essence of raw courage. It must be read.”