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Coming of Age in Mississippi is a book written by Anne Moody that details her life as a black woman in rural Mississippi during the mid-20th century. It encompasses Moody’s life from her childhood to her mid 20’s, the most impactful and important part being her involvement in the Civil Rights Movement which began while she was a student at Tougaloo College had been known to be predominantly black. The autobiography also addresses her struggles with racism among white people, along with the sexism she encountered from her allied civil rights advocates.
Essie May Moodie, who would become Anne Moody, was born on September 15th, 1940, outside of Centreville, Mississippi. Born to two young sharecroppers and the oldest of many of her siblings, Moody was burdened with a heavy sense of responsibility at a young age and in turn, was forced to mature very quickly. She graduated in 1959 and received a scholarship to play basketball at Natchez Junior College. She ended up transferring to Tougaloo College. She engaged in the Civil Rights Movement early, helping to create and organize the Congress of Racial Equality. She also participated in a Woolworth’s sit-in on May 28th, 1963. (Where blacks would sit at the white portion of a restaurant and ask for service, and stay even when it was refused). Shortly after graduating from Tougaloo College, she moved to Ithaca, New York. She became a project coordinator for Cornell University. She left Cornell and moved to New York City in 1968 and began writing Coming of Age in Mississippi. She met and married Austin Straus, and had one son with him, Sascha Straus. She was diagnosed and struggled with dementia. She died in her home in Gloster Mississippi on February 5th, 2015 at age 74.
Moody begins the story on the plantation where she and her Mother, Too sweet, and her father, Diddly, who are both sharecroppers, and her younger sister, Adeline live. Later, Moody's mother gives birth to another child, Jr. while Too sweet is pregnant with Jr., her father engages in an affair with another woman on the plantation. Shortly after Jr.’s birth, her parents separated.
Moody moves with her mother and younger siblings to town to live with her great aunt and begins her schooling. Moody's curiosity about race begins when she asks questions about her two uncles appearing white, which are unanswered. Her mother starts a relationship with a man named Raymond, who she eventually marries and has five more children with.
When she turns nine, Moody begins her first job sweeping a porch, where she earns seventy-five cents an hour alongside two gallons of milk. She begins a sibling rivalry with Raymond’s sister Darlene; she and Moody are the same age and in the same class, endlessly competing whenever the opportunity arises.
Moody attends Church at Centreville, the same one Raymond’s family attends, but she is eventually tricked into attending her mother's church, which sparks resentment towards her for a significant time after that.
Once the family farm goes under, Moody tries even harder to support her family. Moody is asked for a copy of her birth certificate for graduation, but her birth certificate depicts her name as Annie Mae. When her mother requests to have it changed, she is informed that changing it would incur a fee; Moody requests to keep the name Annie, and in doing so changes her name to Annie Mae.
Moody's political opinions awaken in her teenage years, depicted in the book's second section, 'High School.' While she attends high school for her first year, Emmett Till, an innocent 14-year-old black boy visiting Mississippi from Chicago, is tortured and murdered for allegedly whistling in an enticing and offensive manner at a white woman. His murder becomes a defining moment in Moody's life. Shortly after the murder, when Moody asks her mother questions about why Emmet Till was killed and by whom, she is told, 'an Evil Spirit killed him;' and that 'it would take eight years to learn what that spirit was.' For the first time, Moody understands the extent to which whites in Mississippi will go to protect their way of life. That they will go to cruel and unjust ends to ensure white supremacy and the powerlessness of blacks. Moody asks for the definition of the word “NAACP”. She is told by her mother never to mention that word around whites, and, if she is able, not at all. Later, Moody finds that there is one adult in her life who can explain to her the answers she searches for: Mrs. Rice, her homeroom teacher. Mr.s Rice becomes a pivotal part of Moody’s growth. She answers Moody's questions concerning Emmett Till and the NAACP, and she volunteers a great deal more information about race relations in Mississippi. Moody's curiosity about the NAACP comes again later while she attends college. Moody declares this the point in her life where she grew a hatred for white people. She also moves to Baton Rouge in the same year during the summer. While she is in Baton Rouge, Moody learns several difficult lessons when she is scammed out of two weeks of pay by a white family, and when she is double-crossed by a co-worker, which resulted in her being fired. Moody viewed working for Mrs. Burke as an obstacle to overcome. Moody ended up graduating high school in the summer of 1959 and decided to return to New Orleans for good.
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