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. Adopted daughter Dorothy Jean Hamer tells how Fannie Lou and her husband “Pap” took in foster children as their own; how the injustices of “Jim Crow” South emboldened her to demand the right to vote for African-Americans; and how she shook the political world during “Freedom Summer” by helping found the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. Describing to the Convention Credentials Committee her harrowing story of harassment, arrest and beating by the police, Hamer pointedly asked: “Is this America?” Her efforts achieved limited success, but her voice resonated throughout the country and helped lead to the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. 

The music of This Little Light begins and ends with the voice of Fannie Lou herself. The sound of her singing civil rights anthems – “Woke up this morning,” “Go tell it on the mountain,” “Ain’t gonna let nobody turn me ‘round” and “This Little Light of Mine” – anchors all of my vocal writing, especially for chorus. But just as important is the sound of Mrs. Hamer’s powerful speaking voice, excerpts of which I incorporate into the score, telling her harrowing story of humiliation, torture and ultimate triumph.

Commissioned by Opera for All Voices consortium.