Atlantic City Weekly

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Location: The Sand Lot – Camp Boardwalk
Dateline: 11.19.11

ATLANTIC CITY —  ‎"I'M SICK & TIRED OF BEING SICK & TIRED." Fanny Lou Hamer, a black sharecropper from the state of Mississippi spoke these words on Aug. 22, 1964, at the Democratic National Convention here inside Atlantic City’s Convention Hall (now Boardwalk Hall).

Because she registered to vote in 1962, her family was kicked off the farm they had worked for 18 years. In 1961, she had been sterilized without her knowledge and consent as part of Mississippi’s program to reduce the number of poor blacks in the state.

On June 9, 1963, Hamer and others were arrested on false charges in Winona, Miss., where they were savagely beaten almost to death while jailed. Thousands of African-Americans registering across the South were facing similar prejudices and circumstances, all in name of protecting the status quo.

This brave American went on to work with the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee and Freedom Summer, a civil rights movement in 1964, involving mostly young, white, northerners registering black voters across the South where fear of reprisal was the rule. 

That summer Hamer also become the vice chair of the newly formed Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (Freedom Democrats). As such, she led a large black delegation to the 1964 Atlantic City Convention, where she made a speech in front of the credentials committee, seeking accredidation and  representative votes. They were denied.

Many local families housed and fed these delegates during their stay in Atlantic City since finances and race precluded them from staying in Atlantic City hotels.

President Johnson, fearing the effects of Hamer’s speech and the Freedom Democrats on his effort to win re-election called an emergency press conference to pre-empt her TV coverage. Real newsmen, the likes of Cronkite, Huntley and Brinkley, John Facenda, would have none of that.

The networks ran her unedited speech on the late news and millions of Americans got to hear what segregation was really like in the South with thousands of calls coming from across the nation demanding they be seated.

Hamer rejected several compromises for non-voting seats stating no one person is more important than the 400,000 she was representing.

The final result of many behind the scene maneuverings by the likes of Hubert Humphrey (running for VP nomination), Walter Mondale, J.Edgar Hoover was the adoption of a platform clause stating the 1968 Democratic Convention would demand equality of representation from their states’ delegations.

The roots of this story were first pointed out to me by Jackie Murphy, a 64 -year-old Atlantic City resident occupying Atlantic City this past Saturday, Nov. 19, with Occupy AC.

WATCH VIDEO INTERVIEW WITH JACKIE MURPHY AND OTHER OCCUPY ATLANTIC CITY MEMBERS BY CLICKING HERE

Currently unemployed, she was fired by Trump Plaza after 17 years as a phone operator, replaced by someone cheaper. “Something’s gotta give.” she says.

This past weekend saw peaceful demonstrators standing on the corner of Indiana and Pacific avenues forewarned they would be arrested immediately if a tent were erected on the Pinnacle (former Sands) site they are calling the "sandlot."

I spent the day with them. (SEE PHOTOS HERE)

For the past few weeks the Internet has exploded with graphic portrayals of occupiers being occupied as camps are broken down.

Choosing to operate within laws that seem to change around them with what they can and cannot do, Occupy AC facilitator Tiffany told me several private lot owners are sympathetic and arranging with the city a legal encampment.

“Because the occupiers have been portrayed across the nation as ‘lawbreakers,’ we feel it is important for us to do what we can to comply,” she says.

Ray, a 53-year-old member of Veterans for Peace, and his wife Nancy were clearly upset that there are movements across the nation to have the Occupiers officially classified as "terrorists."

“I’ve been working all my life. My daughter is about to receive her masters degree so she can work in special education, and, now I’m a terrorist?”

Atlantic City resident Kathleen, arriving at the rally after work on Saturday said, “We’ve been occupied for years. The CRDA now controls and owns most of this city. We have castles with moats overlooking poverty and despair. And, now they tell me I am a threat to the city. I decided to live in town ... and not move, and I’m the criminal?”

Another man told the story of working in the foreclosure department of a bank. One day he was ordered to saw the banister off a staircase where a young mother had chained herself and her children to forestall the eviction that came with foreclosure.

“That’s the day I quit that job and joined the Occupy movement. There has to be some better way.”

“We’re building an ark. One by one, people are coming aboard from across the spectrum,” Harvey, a veteran who has been homeless for a few months said. He came on Saturday to coordinate any and all homeless who might appear at the Occupied site with social workers.

“Folks aren’t used to guys like me having a brain," he said. "We all have to do what we have to do.”

I watched a woman step from her parked Mercedes asking: “Do you need donations? What would you like me to let my representatives know?”

Another stood on the corner with a sign. “I have a job. I live comfortably. I support Occupy Atlantic City.”

By 8:30pm it became apparent the occupiers were not going to find legal encampment that night so they set up camp in the yard of a Northfield home going through foreclosure.

Andrea, homeowner and working mother of two young children, thought it important that camp be set up somewhere.

“We have 10 campers ready to camp tonight, with more ready to join once established. Let’s do it.”

There are hundreds of stories of residents trying to improve things. The same night the occupiers were trying to occupy, the Polaris group was holding a fundraiser inside Redding’s Restaurant (Kentucky and Pacific avenues) to raise capital for the rebirth of Atlantic City’s Kentucky Avenue. Kentucky Avenue was the central core of the African-American community in town for decades and hosted entertainers and travelers from around the world.

As people try to lead themselves this Thanksgiving, it is important to remember our roots of self governance throughout time. 

The Pilgrims left Plymouth, England, on Sept. 6, 1620, for the New World. Although filled with uncertainty and peril, America offered both civil and religious liberty. For more than two months, 102 passengers braved the harsh elements of a vast storm-tossed sea until the cry of "Land!" was heard.
 
Arriving in Massachusetts in late November, the Pilgrims sought a suitable landing place. On Dec. 11, just before disembarking at Plymouth Rock, they signed the "Mayflower Compact," America's first document of civil government and the first to introduce self-government.  

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Geoff Rosenberger is a Broker Associate at Marketplace Realty. Read more of the acweekly.com columnist, Margate City resident and self-proclaimed visionary's "Geoff's Page," including local snap shots, thoughts, Atlantic City news, random musings, GLBT-related news, "The Real Report," and happenings every week — only at acweekly.com.

E-mail Geoff at geoffrosenberger@comcast.net or call him at 609-385-7585.