Storm causes power outage on Marco Island. Over 15,000 people on Marco Island were without power for more than seven hours Sunday morning. Violent storm winds Saturday night caused the main transmission line feeding the island to go down, leaving many businesses and homes in the dark.
In 1968 Hamer founded the Freedom Farms Corporation (FFC) a non-profit venture designed to help poor farming families. It also provided social services and grants for education. Fannie Lou Hamer died in Mound Bayou, Mississippi on 14th March 1977.
Fannie Lou Hamer was born in Montgomery County, Mississippi in 1917. Forty-seven years earlier, the 15th amendment had given African-Americans the right to vote. In 1920, three years after her birth, the 19th amendment granted suffrage to American women.