‘We never stopped the fight’: The Mississippians carrying on Fannie Lou Hamer’s legacy

This story originally appeared on The 19th.

RULEVILLE, Mississippi — When Charles “Mac” McLaurin walks past the gates of the small garden that is the final resting place for his friend, civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer, he tends to bypass the historic marker with the milestones of her life, as well as the headstone etched with her famous words: “I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.”

Instead, the 84-year-old McLaurin likes to stand in front of the eight-foot-tall bronze statue of Hamer a few feet away.