Born as the youngest of 20 children in a sharecropping family in rural Mississippi, Fannie Lou Hamer endured more hardship as a child than many do in a lifetime. Like countless others trapped by poverty and racism, Hamer would likely have died in virtually the same situation as she was born. But one fateful evening, she attended a meeting about voting rights, and she altered the course of her life.

Hamer became one of the most vocal and eloquent drum majors for justice in the Civil Rights Movement. Despite jail, beatings and brutal verbal attacks, Hamer persisted in the struggle for black rights because of her faith in God. Her story reveals how the Civil Rights Movement was fueled by faith and why current justice movements must also draw on the reservoir of Christian faith to emerge triumphant.