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Anne Moody's Coming of Age in Mississippi was a good book for people who, just kidding. I found the book altogether insightful into the life of an African-American raised in the deep south during the civil rights movement. Although some parts played into the old stereotypes I heard over and over growing up, it did display a radical new breed for this period, a black, woman at that, fighting for her rights. It also gave us a look at what many sacrificed in order to acheive civil rights for all. I plan to explain the above statements more thoroughly throughout this paper. I believe this book achieved its goal of telling of one womans struggle for her basic rights in a hostile environment.
This book begins with the life of its author. She starts out as basically a slave child on a farm in Mississippi. She tells of her parents lives, how they went to the fields at sun up and came back from them at sundown. She describes her abusive cousin, George Lee, and tells of a few traumatic childhood experiences. She goes on describing where her mother and fathers marital problems begin, which leads to their separation and her father moving in with another woman.
This is where her hardships began. Throughout her childhood she is a this, poor little girl who is afraid to even ask her mother questions about what is going on around her. Anne tells of their staple diet, beans and bread, which was just enough to keep her alive. I can not possibly imagine what it is like to be on the brink of starvation. Although a timid, shy, little girl, Anne does show a spark of intensity through her schoolwork. She is very competitive and driven to do well in school.
This is the fuel which that will later feed her fire to participate in the Movement. This want for an education is also a rather new trait for black women of her time. She is already a sort of radical as a child and does not even know it. As she grows older her mother begins a relationship with a black man from town named Raymond.
She talks of her mother being pregnant and her realizing of how babies are brought into the world. Anne describes her mothers mood swings and what I see as emotional depression while seeing Raymond and not living with him. Anne, her mother, brother, and sister eventually move into a house in town with Raymond, which he has built for them. This house seems like a mansion compared to what they had been living in. Throughout her late childhood and teenage years she tells about the jobs she had and the effect they had upon her. She talks of Mrs.
Claiborne and Mrs. Johnson and how they encouraged her to learn. She also talks of the Jenkins, the young white family she worked for, and how Linda Jean treated her as an equal. And then there is Mrs. Burke who I believe was the first white whom Anne really had contempt for. Through working for her Anne learned how to be persistent in her actions therefore achieving her goal, in this case it was the freedom to do her work the way she wanted.
Through her high school years Anne becomes more and more aware of what is going on in the world around her. Her first realization of extreme racial violence was when she learned of Email Tills murder. Through learning of Emits death she also learns of groups such as the NAACP. One Sunday afternoon Anne sits down with Mrs. Rice and was told of the countless butchering of blacks by whites in the South. I was fifteen years old when I began to hate people, that is not only whites to which Anne is referring but also the blacks who let these acts of violence to continue happening.
During her junior year of high school Anne left home and went to live with her dad for the remainder of the school year, she and her mom had a falling out. That summer she went to New Orleans and worked in a chicken plant. She finished out her senior year while living with her dad. Although she had the highest GPA in her class she was not the valedictorian since she was the product of two schools.
Within two days of graduation she arrives in New Orleans with the hopes of making enough money that summer to go to college. She then goes to college at Natchez college, a two year school. Throughout her college career we see Anne go through a change. She goes from being a shy, timid black girl to a determined civil rights activist.
Her involvement in CORE and the NAACP help her to develope into the civil rights activist we know her as today. She began college, as I said, at Natchez college. Here at Natchez not alot went on. As her second year at Natchez ended her grades there were high enough to get a scholarship to a four year school.
She got a full scholarship to Tougaloo, the best black college in Mississippi. During her first year at Tougaloo she became involved in the local chapter of the NAACP. This begins her involvement in the Movement. In her first protest she and a friend sit-in at a bus station.
Her first major protest project was a sit-in at Woolworths, a diner, in Jackson. This was a nationally reported event. From this point on Anne becomes totally involved in the civil rights movement with little if no time away from it. The rest of the book tells of her involvement in the Movement. It talks of her arrest, of struggling just to get food, and of the many threats and close calls which she lived through. Through these trying times she the keeps faith fairly consistent, but we all have our moments of doubt and pain.
In the last part of her book Anne becomes enraged at not only the oppressive whites but also the black population for not rises up against them. This passiveness of her race seems to be the most devastating to Annes will. She is constantly speaking of her disgust for those blacks who passive take the abuse. The book ends on a note mixed emotion.
After Anne had left the Movement for a while she returns to Canton, the city which most of her protesting took place, after being in New Orleans for a few months. She stays there a few days and realizes just what the Movement meant to her. The book closes with Anne hopping on a bus headed for Washington to testify to put it in the words of little Gene Young. She leaves with a sense of doubt but at the same time an even greater sense of hope. I really enjoyed this book for many reasons. One being the insight into the life of a civil rights activist in the south.
I had no idea what they went through! I have seen a few kinds of light discrimination in my lifetime but never understood the extent of all out racial violence that occurred during this period. I have definitely developed a deep sense of respect for the civil rights activist of the sixties since reading this book. Like I said in my opening paragraph some parts played into the stereotypes of blacks, some old, some new. The fact that Annes mother had what, five or six children, I lost count about halfway through the book.
Why in the hell would you have that many children when your living under the poverty line? That is just stupid! Also the blacks who accepted the abuse they recieved and did nothing about it. Both of these play into stereotypes.
The first being a newer stereotype which I have seen associated with many black women today, that is that they have numerous children without the money to adequately support them. The second being that blacks are docile and easily managed, this being the older of the two. I found it interesting that in parts of the book that I, a white male, was able to identify with Anne Moody. My Dad runs a small independent pharmacy in a small southern town, Union Springs. Many of our older black customers, those that are in they seventies usually, have an odd trait of showing a high level of respect toward whites, including myself.
I always feel disturbed and angry about this trait. It means that somewhere along the lines that a white taught that person to show all whites a lot of respect. I am the one who should be showing a high level of respect for them, me being the much younger of the two. Anne had a problem with this behavior as well. Altogether I enjoyed this book. I found it very insightful as well as powerful.
I see this book as a testament to the power of the human will. I have come to regard this time period of history with a new found respect. I have one question though, is Anne Moody still wondering?
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Research essay sample on Civil Rights Movement Anne Moody
