Description
“Nobody’s free until everybody’s free.”
— Fannie Lou Hamer
Please note that our remaining inventory of this print consists entirely of APs or “Artist Proofs.” We determine our edition number before printing, but we always print a few more broadsides than we think we’ll need for the edition, in case of mishaps during the process. When the edition is finished, any extra prints that survive outside of the edition are signed and labeled with “AP” in place of a number. Because we wait to sell the APs until the rest of the edition is sold out, and because APs are otherwise identical in quality to the numbered prints, they are priced the same as our numbered prints.
This hand-pulled letterpress print is printed from hand-lettered original typography and hand-drawn illustrations (in fact, everything was done by hand, the hard way!). This piece was created in support of equal voting rights for all, in the face of staggering and persistent voter suppression based on race. With the critical 2018 election on the horizon, it is more important than ever to combat racism and make sure that all Americans have the same access to their constitutionally-protected rights of suffrage.
Our 27th broadside, Seeding the Vote, honors Fannie Lou Hamer’s home county of Sunflower County, Mississippi, where she planted the seeds for a voting rights campaign that grew rapidly into a blooming national movement. The first half of the quote sits “behind bars,” obscured by the stalks of wilted sunflowers, while the second half is festooned with vibrant yellow blossoms. Fannie’s portrait hovers above a trio of her iconic yellow voter registration buses—which are also designed to be reminiscent of other Civil Rights Movement buses in the American South, including Rosa Parks’ famous bus in Montgomery, Alabama.
To help combat the same racist disenfranchisement that Fannie devoted her life to fighting, we are donating a portion of our proceeds to Spread the Vote, a nonprofit that obtains government-issued photo IDs to help eligible voters meet the requirements of voter ID laws. Currently 34 states have some form of voter ID law as a requirement for enfranchisement; many of the strictest laws exist in states with a large percentage of Black or other minority voters. With their IDs obtained with the help of Spread the Vote, these same people can also secure housing, jobs and other essentials more easily—helping them participate more fully in society and exercise their rights as Americans.
This poster was printed on an antique Vandercook Universal One press. Each piece is printed on archival, 100% rag (cotton) paper, and individually signed and numbered by both artists. This piece was printed in a limited edition; once the edition sells out, it will not be reprinted. So snag your copy while you can! In the meantime, you can learn more about this broadside and the story behind it on our blog.
Edition size: 165
Paper size: approximately 10 x 18 inches
Colophon reads:
Fannie Lou Hamer (1917 – 1977) was the youngest of 20 children born to Mississippi sharecroppers, and was picking cotton by age six. At 13, since she was literate, she became the plantation’s record keeper. Married in 1944, she continued plantation work with her husband. In 1961, Hamer was subjected by a white doctor to a hysterectomy without her consent, while undergoing surgery for a uterine tumor. Forced sterilization of Black women was so widespread it was dubbed a “Mississippi appendectomy.”
Starting in 1962, Hamer organized buses to register thousands of Black voters in Sunflower County, Mississippi. They faced continued voter suppression, a $100 fine for a bus that was too yellow, extortion, threats and assaults — and Hamer was fired from the plantation. In 1963, after she ran a literacy workshop to help Black voters overcome racist poll tests, police arrested her and beat her nearly to death. Nevertheless, she ran for Congress in 1964 and helped organize the Freedom Summer voter registration drive in Sunflower County. At the Democratic National Convention later that year, she co-founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, an integrated group of activists who openly challenged the legality of Mississippi’s all-white, segregated delegation. Through it all, Hamer kept campaigning, while signing hyms and traditional spirituals to keep up morale among her followers. Today she is heralded as a civil rights icon, yet the refrain of her famous words is still familiar to the choir: “I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.”
Illustrated by Chandler O’Leary and printed by Jessica Spring, in honor of the tireless work of women who plant the seeds and tend the crop of budding voters. March 2018
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This original artwork is copyright Chandler O’Leary and Jessica Spring 2018. Copyright is not transferable with the sale of this print. The buyer is not entitled to reproduction rights.
WA state residents are subject to sales tax.
The print is packaged in a clear poly sleeve and will ship flat in a protective mailer, via USPS Priority Mail.
