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.
Hamer, born Fannie Lou Townsend on October 6, 1917, in Montgomery County, Mississippi, was the youngest of twenty children. Her parents, Ella and James Lee Townsend, were sharecroppers, which meant that at harvest time, they turned their crops over to the landowner and were paid a small amount for their share.