Coming Of Age In Mississippi Critical Analysis

“Coming of Age in Mississippi” an autobiography by Anne Moody gives a beautifully honest view of the Deep South from a young African American woman. In her Autobiography Moody shares her experiences of growing up as a poor African American in a racist society. She also depicts the changes inflicted upon her by the conditions in which she is treated throughout her life. These stories scrounged up from Anne’s past are separated into 4 sections of her book. One for her Childhood in which she partially resided on a plantation, the next was her High School experiences that lead to the next chapter of her life, college. The end of Anne’s remarkable journey to adulthood takes place inside her college life but is titled The Movement in tribute to the

Civil Rights work performed in this part of her life.
Anne Moody’s childhood begins when her Mother, Toosweet, had just given birth to Anne’s first sibling Adline. At this time, Moody was about four years old and her family lived on a plantation where her parents were workers in the field. They stayed at the plantation till shortly after a fire destroyed their home and Anne’s father was caught in an affair that resulted in her parents splitting up. Her Mother now single and taking care of 3 children all of her own worked many menial jobs. This, although was not enough to provide for her growing Family, Moody started working for white neighbors after school and in the summers. As Moody’s schooling increased it was evident that she was very smart and had obtained the head of her class and even became homecoming queen. She also started playing Basketball and just like her intellectual activities she excelled. While working for the White families in Centerville was when Moody showed a longing for the lifestyle possessed by the families she worked for. Her desire caused a resentment towards her mother for the life they lived and towards her mother’s lover Raymond.
Once in high school, Anne’s views of the white community in her area had started to change. Anne realizes that she was so fixated on wanting what the white citizens of Centerville had that she overlooked the racial problems and violence that surround her. She now fears and hates the people around her and on page 136 she states, “I was fifteen years old when I began to hate people. I hated the white men who murdered Emmet Till and I hated all the other whites who were responsible for the countless murders Mrs. Rice had told me about and those I vaguely remembered from childhood. 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.” After the murder, Anne overhears Mrs. Burke and her "guild meeting" discuss the NAACP, an organization is trying to improve the situation for southern African Americans. This information will have a long lasting imprint on Moody’s life. After Graduation Moody moved to New Orleans where she struggled to gain enough money for a New Orleans College. Moody resorted to attending Natchez College on a basketball scholarship. Her junior year Moody decided that she would transfer to a better school. This school ended up being Tougaloo College in Mississippi. Once Moody settles into her new college in Mississippi is when the thesis of her autobiography is realized.
The thesis of “Coming of Age in Mississippi” is to show the negative effect of prejudice and the difficult road towards ending it.

While in college Anne notices and experiences these prejudices and tries to stop it when she joins the NAACP. Through her writings of the NAACP happenings Anne in able to deliver her thesis clearly. Anne shows her strong passion for changing the way her people were treated (Page 269) “All that night I didn’t sleep. Everything started coming back to me. I thought of Samuel O’Quinn. I thought of how he had been shot in the back with a shotgun because they suspected him of being a member. I thought of Reverend Dupree and his family who had been run out of Woodville when I was a senior in high school, and all he had done was to get up and mention NAACP in a sermon. The more I remembered the killings, beatings, and intimidations, the more I worried what might possibly happen to me or my family if I joined the NAACP. But I knew I was going to join, anyway. I had wanted to for a long time.” The joining of the NAACP carries Moody’s thesis even further. Her active support in the NAACP, as seen in the movement section of her book, shown on page 289 when Moody participated in a sit-in, “She told us we would be served at the black counter, which was for Negroes. ‘We would like to be served here,’ I said. The waitress started to repeat what she had said, then stopped in the middle of her sentence. She turned the lights out behind the counter, and she and the

other waitresses almost ran to the back of the store, deserting all their white customers. I guess they thought that violence would start immediately after the whites at the counter realized what was going on.” Once Moody experienced the harshness of the white society against the NAACP she began to realize the odds of changing the prejudice of people. Since the NAACP was inhabited by many young members she knew that if her generation failed the next would end the prejudice ways of America. She speaks of her hopes on pages 290-291 by using a metaphor where the sickness is the white society and doctors are young NAACP members, “Before the sit-in, I had always hated the whites in Mississippi. Now I knew it was impossible for me to hate sickness. The whites had a disease, an incurable disease in its final stage. What were our chances against such a disease? I thought of the students, the young Negroes who had just begun to protest, as young interns. When these young interns got older I thought, they would be the best doctors in the world for social problems.”
After reading “Coming of Age in Mississippi” I agreed very much with the way Anne ended her Autobiography.

Moody sets the ending scene as she and a young boy are on their way to Washington, most likely to the March on Washington. (page 424) “I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes. ‘Moody…’ it was little gene interrupting his singing. ‘Moody we’re gonna git things straight in Washington, huh?’ I didn’t answer him. I knew I didn’t have to. He looked as if he knew exactly what I was thinking. ‘I wonder. I wonder’ We shall overcome, We shall overcome We shall overcome some day. I WONDER. I really WONDER.” When moody ends with this statement of a song used many times in freedom rally’s at the NAACP and the hopefulness of her traveling companion lead us to believe that the end of the Civil rights movement and the end of prejudice of African Americans is near. This assumption that Moody is going to the march on Washington matches with the textbook exactly (pages 278) “In 1963, Dr. King and other Civil Rights leaders organized a March on Washington to pressure Congress to pass the new Civil Rights bill then before Congress…Only a few months after th March on Washington, President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. After his tragic assassination, there was a new willingness in Congress to pass legislation he had proposed before his death,” and the hope that the Civil Rights Movement will end in Moody’s last statement also corresponds with our textbook. Due to Anne

Moody’s background, as a poor black African American that grew up in the south against many discriminations. Her reason for writing this Autobiography seems to be for Moody to share the hardships of her people and the strong will of the NAACP and other protestors towards ending prejudice times. I enjoyed this book immensely it gave me a deep understanding of the real problems the south was having, and I could get detailed information that was true about a time in Americas History that is looked down upon. I also loved to read about the movement from a protestors view and to know what Moody was thinking and feeling. “Coming of Age in Mississippi” is a book that should be recommended to anyone it gives a very detailed and raw explanation to what life was like when faced with discrimination. It also gives insight to actual events in the Civil Rights Movement not many people have explained from a 1st person view. The story told in this book could truly change the way many people view segregation and the long fight many fought trying to bring justice to minorities.