Civil Rights Activist. In addition to tirelessly advocating for initiatives to combat poverty, including the Head Start program for young children, Fannie Lou Hamer founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic party to fight for the enfranchisement of Black voters in the south and to purge the Democratic Party of its segregationist power. In 1969, she founded the Freedom Farm Cooperative- a rural economic development organization that sought to bring many forms for security and agency to Black farmers.