‘Coming of Age in Mississippi’ is one of the most favorite memoirs of American history wherein author Anne Moody shares first-hand account of her life, civil rights movement and contemporary American society. Moody’s account is more realistic than other African writers because she belonged to a common African American family and suffered pain like other African Americans. This paper proposes a discussion on Moody’s autobiography, ‘Coming of Age in Mississippi’ and further analyses the relationship in race, social movement, and citizenship.
Anne Moody was born as Essie Mae. She was the eldest among her eight siblings. When Moody was just 5 – 6 years old, she started working in homes of white people. While working, she continued her studies and entered into Tougaloo College for her higher studies. She also used to visit church on a regular basis that helped her in developing a good idea of Christianity and religious thoughts. Later on she also questioned god on the sufferings of millions of African Americans.
Moody’ memoir is divided into four parts wherein she describes racial discriminations, social movements and civil rights. In beginning of the first part, Childhood, Moody describes the painful living atmosphere of African Americans. She starts the first chapter with “I’m still haunted by dreams of the time we lived on Mr. Carter's plantation. Lots of Negroes lived on his place. Like Mama and Daddy they were all farmers. We all lived in rotten wood two-room shacks” (Moody 3). But ours stood out from the others because it was up on the hill with Mr. Carter's big white house, overlooking the farms and the other shacks below.
The description of abodes of African Americans and their living conditions indicates towards the discriminatory practices and their painful condition in the American society. African Americans were subjected to a variety of sufferings just because of their racial differences from white people of the American society. Moody cites several other instances where African Americans were scolded, beaten and tortured. It seems from her descriptions that Anne moody started hating white people and decided to fight against all oppressions by the period of her adolescence.
Moody starts second part of her book by mentioning murdering of Negroes, especially of a fourteen year young boy, Emmet Till. She was appalled by seeing such things. Her mother and aunt discussed such killings with dreadfulness; “just like them low-down skunks killed him they will do the same to us” (127). Her mother said, “An evil spirit killed him. You gotta be a good girl or it will kill you too” (127). It took a long time to realize her the mystery of such killings and so called “evil spirit”.
Moody was not like other African American youngsters. Her awareness of social and political situation motivated her to raise her voice for civil rights of African Americans. In third part of her book, Moody informs about her involvements in civil rights movements. While pursuing her graduation, Moody participated in a number of movements and waged a war against racial discriminations. Her involvement with social and political activism was growing day by day and she became a known civil rights activist.
While pursuing her graduation, moody joined Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and other organizations that used to work for civil rights. Anne Moody was also associated with National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Moody participated in many protests and led several expeditions. One of her colleague was murdered during one such protest, and she was arrested for her participation in movements. Such incidents and oppressions did not only discourage Moody, but encouraged her to fight back for civil rights of millions of African Americans.
After her graduation, Moody devoted her life to civil rights movement. Efforts of Anne moody were successful when millions of Africans Americans were not only given citizenship rights, but they also were given due respect over a period of time. African Americans were gradually accepted by their white counterparts, and they became inseparable part of the United States. Though she opposed oppressions and racial discriminations of African Americans by white people, but she did not actually disgust them. She married a white man.
Moody wrote ‘Coming of Age in Mississippi’ in the year 1968. This book is considered one of the brightest books of civil rights movement of the United States of America. The reason why the book is so vigorous is realistic portrayal of things that the authored suffered herself in different stages of her life. Anne moody witnessed everything herself and presented the same before her readers in an impartial manner. She had accepted once that she wrote the book as an activist, and not as an author.
Moody exposes the incongruity of the racial discrimination in her book. She fails to understand how white people are superior merely because of their color or physical differences. She gives various instances of her childhood times when white people used to boast of their fair skin and claimed superiority on this basis. Moody is very much candid while portraying the situation. She does not only blame white people for the racial discrimination, but also she criticizes African Americans for their apathetic approach.
Moody writes, “But I also hated Negroes. I hated them for not standing up and doing something about the murders. In fact, I think I had a stronger resentment toward Negroes for letting the whites kill them than toward the whites. Anyway, it was at this stage in my life that I began to look upon Negro men as cowards” (136). Such a realistic portrayal of things suggest that she was fighting against the racial discrimination and injustices, and not against the white people or white race.
Considering the situation, Anne decided to fight, instead of surrendering or remaining silent. She displayed immense strength and created a history through participating in civil rights movements. Portrayal of her personal development symbolizes development of the African American community. The way, she grew from a slave to a leader in her life, African Americans also developed in similar manner, and they got their rights and acceptance in the American society that they deserved.
Considering every aspect of the book, it can be concluded that Anne Moody lodged her strong presence in American history for various good reasons. Her contribution, in the civil rights movement, is very huge and the same is profoundly described in her book, ‘Coming of Age in Mississippi’. The book describes a strong relation in race, civil right movements and citizenship. Readers get a first-hand account of sufferings of African Americans in the contemporary American society, their struggle for civil rights through different movements and achievement of their rights.
Work Cited
Moody, Anne. Coming of Age in Mississippi. New York, NY: Random House, 1968. Print.
