Hamer grew up in Mississippi, USA. She was the youngest of twenty children. Their family was able to get a small amount of a land and a tractor. A white family was very upset that Hamer’s family had this. The white family killed their cattle. After this event, The Hamer family was even poorer than before. Later Hamer said in an interview, “Things got so tough I began to wish I was white.” She also said that her mother got angry at her for saying that and her mother said “Don't ever, ever say that. You respect yourself as a little black child. And as you grow older, respect yourself as a black woman. Then one day, other people will respect you.”Hamer told herself that she would “Do something for the black man of the South if it would cost her life.”Later in Hamer’s life, she married Perry “Pap” Hamer. She adopted 4 children since she could not have any of her own.