On this day in 1963, Black civil rights activists defy a bus driver’s orders to sit in the back of the bus while riding through central Mississippi. At a stop in Winona, they are refused service at a cafe. Police arrive, beat, and arrest the activists. An officer warns them in jail, “We are going to make you wish you was dead." Police force two Black prisoners to beat four of the activists with blackjacks, nearly killing Fannie Lou Hamer. She later overhears officers discussing dumping the prisoners’ bodies in the Big Black River. They are released four days later.

Lawyers file suit against the Winona police, but an all-white jury acquits them.

Permanently injured, Mrs. Hamer remains active in civil rights causes — especially in her home state of Mississippi — for the rest of her life.