This Little Light of Mine

This Little Light of Mine dramatizes the story of Fannie Lou Hamer, a former sharecropper who rose to national prominence at the 1964 Democratic National Convention. As a black woman of humble origins, she spoke truth to power as perhaps no other civil rights leader. The opera is centered on Hamer’s appeal to the Convention’s Credentials Committee to replace Mississippi’s all-white delegation with that of the interracial Freedom Democratic Party. Describing her harrowing story of harassment, arrest and beating by the police, Hamer pointedly asked: “Is this America?”

Her personal sacrifices leading up to that moment imbued Hamer with an unassailable moral authority and her explosive testimony sent shockwaves throughout the nation. Adopted daughter Dorothy Jean narrates her mother’s harrowing life story, but also embodies the general malaise of malnutrition and medical neglect that continue to afflict her community. The drama ends as it began, with the song of hope, “This Little Light of Mine,” still haunted by the reality of an unjust world.