Women’s History Month has its origins in International Women’s Day, first celebrated in 1911. The occasion expanded in scope over the decades, culminating in a 2001 congressional resolution devoting March to the study of women’s issues and accomplishments.This year’s theme is “Writing Women Back into History.” The two events on March 23 focused on the life of Fannie Lou Hamer, a crucial but often-overlooked figure in the civil rights movement, and the ways in which modern women can take control of their own lives.

“Raise your hand if you’ve been told you expect too much,” said CCE student Yolanda Mason, the instructor at the Women’s History Month talk in King. The room was dimly lit and intimate as around 20 students and faculty settled into a circle of couches. All but two lifted their hands.

The group discussion covered four central obstacles facing women today: low self-esteem, an absence of goals, unhealthy relationships, and mediocre expectations of oneself. The goal of identifying these problems was to help shed certain “baggage” like parasitic friends and self-limiting beliefs.

“The only way to deal with unhealthy relationships is to ask ourselves the hard questions,” said Mason.

The group participated in an exercise that asked them to reevaluate a major relationship in their lives. The exercise questions asked participants to compare factors like the greatest sacrifices they had made for the relationship to those the other person had.

“I think it’s great to have small group (discussions), even for guys,” said first-year Morgan Weeks. “We all face struggles throughout the week, and it’s important to have things like this.”

In fact, Mason hosts a women’s discussion group on Fridays at 7 p.m. in Hendricks Hall.

After the discussion, guests gathered in Bryan Jr. to watch actress Mzuri Moyo portray the civil rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer. Moyo is a native of New Jersey who has worked in Paris, Italy, and New York City. She has performed as Hamer for the past nine years, recently at Lincoln Center.

Fannie Lou Hamer was born to a family of sharecroppers in the Mississippi Delta in 1917. Moyo described the brutal conditions as little different than those under slavery. Black sharecroppers were often denied adequate water, food, medicine, education, and wages.

Hamer was instrumental in organizing black people in Mississippi to register to vote. For black citizens in much of the South, voting was an ordeal that required passing prohibitive literacy tests and paying sometimes multiple poll taxes.

Even so, some white people reacted with savagery at the thought of mass black voter registration. On June 9, 1963, Hamer was arrested and horrifically beaten. Her white jailers forced two black men to administer the abuse with iron rods.

Moyo spoke of college students’ role in the civil rights struggle, in particular the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

“They were spit on, they were kicked, they were put in jail, but eventually they helped bring down the Jim Crow laws,” said Moyo.

Appearing onstage out of costume, Moyo discussed her goal to spread Hamer’s legacy and how she uses contemporary politics in her acting. She expressed concern over the current political atmosphere.

“They’re calling people faggots and niggers now, just because they want a health care bill,” she said, referring to the recent Tea Party slurs against Congressmen Barney Frank and John Lewis.

These events commemorated the ongoing struggle women of all backgrounds face for recognition and equal representation. However, the month of March is but one part of the year in which we all might remember this struggle and work to further it.

“Highlighting African-Americans, Hispanic people, native people, (or) women for a month is great. At this point in history, (cultural awareness) needs to be written into the mainstream,” said Africana Community Coordinator Jada Drew.