“Coming of Age In Mississippi” Book Review

Nowadays it is difficult to imagine that black and white people are to take different places in the busses or in the cafes or attend different colleges. The president of the country was a representative of African Americans and this was one of the latest proofs of positive transformation of the segregated community. At the same time it is important not to forget the history, the events, which led to the current order of things, in order not to let any artificial prejudices or policies ruin American society. The American reconstruction period (1865-77), which defined the reunion of the country after the Civil War, was extremely tumultuous for African Americans. The official story of the civil rights movement includes a lot of historical events, which had their impact upon the whole society in America. Officially the civil rights movement has started with the Montgomery with the 1995 bus boycott and appearing of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the public scene. This struggle for equal rights of all citizens of the country was rather turbulent and long. Reconstruction was planned for returning of the former states of the Confederacy to the Union. According to the Thirteen Amendment slavery was abolished in the county and the consequent Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments provided equal rights to all citizens of America. However, the process of their integration into American society was long, challenging and painful. There were a lot of written sources and narrations, which contributed to presenting the events of the Civil Rights movement. Coming of Age in Mississippi is a well-known writing by Anne Moody, written in 1968. This is a story of a girl, who grows up in a rural Mississippi as an African American woman. This book is devoted to describing of Anne Moody’s life, starting from her childhood and till her mid twenties with great focus upon her personal involvement in the Civil Rights Movement from her being a student as the black Tougaloo College and this autobiography stands out due to profound and realistic representation of the personal and national struggle against racism and inequality between white and black people. Her personal involvement into the Civil Rights Movement was definitely fueled by her anger at the existing system, in which she was raised and had to adhere to. Coming of Age in Mississippi is an outstanding and influential memoir, written by Anne Moody, who became an activist in the Civil Rights Movement with the aim to show the reality of racial segregation through the lens of an African-American woman.

Anne Moody was born in September 1940 outside Centerville, Mississippi. She was a daughter of poor sharecroppers. Thus from her early childhood years she knew about life hardships and had to mature quickly. She graduated from high school in 1959, then she obtained scholarship at Natchez Junior College and then was transferred to Tougaloo College. As soon as she left Cornell, she moved to New York City, exactly there she started working over her great writing Coming of Age in Mississippi. She married Austin Straus and they had a son. She died at the age of 74, having struggled with dementia for a long period of time. Coming of Age in Mississippi consists of four major parts – each of them is associated with an important period of life of the writer: Childhood, High School, College, The Movement.

The first part is called Childhood and this is the beginning of the story of Anne Moody, devoted to her life on the plantation with her family. Her parents were sharecoppers and unfortunately this perspective was absolutely unacceptable for black people, irrespective of the fact that theoretically it seemed to be an good alternative to slavery conditions. Moody was then forced to move to town to live there with her mother and siblings and great aunt. When Moody started her grade school, she was already interested in race issues. During the time, when Moody was in college, her mother met a man named Raymond and they got married and had five more children. When Moody was nine, she took up her first job of sweeping a porch. For this job she received seventy-five cents a week and two gallons of milk. This was the first time in her life, when she experienced that there is a real difference between being white and black. When it became clear that their family farm failed, Moody was to take more responsibility in relation to supporting her family. She needed to provide the copy of her birth certificate for her graduation, and she had Annie Mae written in her certificate. She had to pay an additional fee for changing it in order to become Annie Mae Moody.

The second part of the book is devoted to the author’s high school years. This was a remarkable period for her political awakening and she did her best to reflect it in her writing. Already during her first year at high school, Moody knows about the story of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old boy from Chicago, who came to Mississippi and was tortured and murdered for his allegedly offensive behavior towards a white woman. This murder was an important point in Moody’s conscious life. She had a lot of questions about this boy and first of all she wanted to know, the reason, why this boy was killed. She asked her mother questions and received indefinite answers like “an Evil Spirit killed him” (Moody 1968). Initially it was difficult for the girl to realize what kind of spirit this was. Later she started to understand that white people in Mississippi would do their best in order to protect their supremacy positions in their society and would not allow any kind of equality with black people. White people considered African-Americans to be savages and this meant that they were not allowed to enter their community as equal members of it. Later Moody wanted to know what NAACP means, after she had heard about the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People from Mrs. Burke, who was a white woman, she worked for. Instead of an answer, her mother prohibited her mentioning it in front of white people. Anne did not want to work for Mrs. Burke, realizing that this was a racist and domineering individual. At the same time she was aware of the fact that she could not afford refusing from that position, as she commented “I had to help secure that plate of dry beans”, meaning that she needed money for her family. (Moody 1968).  Moody continued to look for the answers to a great number of questions she had about the differences between white and black people and their relation to social life. Finally, she managed to find a person, who could provide adequate answers to her questions; this was Mrs. Rice, her homeroom teacher. The role, played by Mrs. Rice in Moody’s life and perceptions of the surrounding world, was great. She provided concrete answers not only about the issues regarding NAACP or Emmett Till, but also revealed a lot of information about the actual situation with race relations in Mississippi. When Moody became a student of Tougaloo College, she redeveloped her interested in the NAACP. Being a fifteen years old girl, Moody claimed that she started to hate white people. Her attitude did not change in Baton Rouge either, as there she had bad experience with a white family with her two week’s pay, she was betrayed by her co-worker and lost her job. When Moody graduated from high school in 1959, she took a decision to move to New Orleans.

The third part of the autobiography is devoted to rapid development of Moody’s political involvement. Upon her graduation, Moody got a letter from the head coach of Natchez Junior College, informing about her basketball scholarship.  The college had great impact upon Moody and she had serious doubts that she would continue after the first year there, but she was forced to return because the prices for schools in New Orleans were rather high. Upon her return to Natchez College, Moody participated in organization of a boycott of the cafes on the college campus, when a student found a maggot in the plate of grits. This experience of organization of a large group of individuals for protest against general order or institutions had great meaning for her consequent life and activities. Trotter, who was a roommate of Moody, was a secretary at the NAACP and he offered her joining the organization. She took the decision to attend their meeting in order to take the decision. After the demonstration a lot of students from Tougaloo were jailed and when they arrived back to campus there were taken by Medgar Evers to “get some of Tougaloo’s spirit and try and spread it around all over Jackson.” (Moody 1968). Moody had problems with her grades, but at that moment of her life she started to realize that the movement was very important for her and she could not refuse from participating in it. Being a junior at Tougaloo College Moody decides to join the NAACP. This part of the book ends with the author’s recollecting the terrible situation with Jackson. Once during her shopping trip with Rose, one of the students of Tougaloo College, Moody entered the part of the Trailway bus depot, which was supposed for Whites Only. Initially the white people were shocked, but then they gathered into a single group, menacing with violence to the two black women. This part of the book is very important, as it is devoted to the author’s explanation of her initial motivations to participate in the Civil Rights Movement and her further considerations of the complexity of the problems of racial relations and inequality.

The fourth part of the writing is related to the Movement. It informs the readers about the actual direct and active participation of Anne Moody in the struggle for civil rights of black people. She arrived to Woolworth’s lunch counter in Jackson. They did not leave and waited. Later a lot of white students gathered there and as soon as they realized that there was a sit-in, they surrounded Woody and her colleagues. They started with verbal abuse, which quickly transformed into a physical. All of them were beaten, kicked and “smeared with ketchup, mustard, sugar, pies and everything on the counter.” (Moody 1968). This process lasted for hours and ended only when Dr. Beittel, the president of Tougaloo College arrived,  and managed to save them. After the incident was over, Moody came to realize that “about ninety white police officers had been standing outside the store; they had been watching the whole thing through the windows, but had not come in to stop the mob or do anything.” (Moody 1968). This experience was important for Moody, for formation of her perception of the nature of the white people in Mississippi and she concluded that they were all sick with incurable disease. She realized that they were ready to torture and even to kill just with the aim to preserve the segregated social order. Most probably this was the decisive moment for Moody’s development of anger and desire to change the order to things. Before she had hopes that the situation would gradually improve, but at that moment she knew that there were no changes for better to wait for.

The central themes of Coming of Age in Mississippi are related to the problems of racial relations in the author’s society. Being a unique personality, Anne Moody started to ask questions about the absurdity of racial distinctions from her early childhood, when she asked white children to undress for her see the real reasons for their superiority, which she thought should have been hidden somewhere. Growing older, Moody started to realize that there was a need for the black people to stand for their rights, but they were too oppressed and too permissive and ready to accept the injustice. The first examples the author found in her own family already. The fact that light-skinned blacks tended to distance from dark-skinned blacks was a real shock for the author. In reality all whites had similar negative attitude towards black people, irrespective of the fact whether they are light-skinned or dark-skinned. Their attitude was supported by strong prejudice from the side of white people, which could be compared to the prejudice of wealthy people towards poor individuals. Anne was able to experience this prejudice in her own life and it caused a lot of pain for her. Actually exactly this prejudice is the major reason, why Anne herself started to develop negative attitude towards white people.

Overall, Coming of Age of Mississippi by Anne Moody is ever actual writing, which has both historical, ethical, social significance for all citizens of the country and especially younger generations. Anne Moody was an active participant of the Civil Rights Movement and thus had made a serious contribution into its development. The movement could be successful only under the conditions of strong national leadership and corresponding strong community ties, which were secured by such individuals, as Anne Moody.

Works cited:

Cimbala, Paul, A. The Freedmen’s Bureau: Reconstructing the American South after the Civil War. Krieger Pub Co; Original edition, 2005

Moody Anne. Coming Of Age in Mississippi. Dell, 1968

The Murder Of Emmett Till – Documentary, 2015

Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrHrMHtR1Ds

The terms offer and acceptance. (2016, May 17). Retrieved from

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016.

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

freeessays.club (2016) The terms offer and acceptance [Online].
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[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]
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