Summary Of Coming To Age In Mississippi By Anne Moody

888 Words2 Pages

Derrick Casella
Felix
Wed 8:00
19 May 2015

Coming Of Age In Mississippi

The autobiography Coming To Age In Mississippi by Anne Moody is a story about the struggles Moody experienced growing up as an African American in the South during the 1940s to 1960s. During her youth, Moody did not see race as an issue. As she grew, so did her knowledge of how big of a problem racism was and how it negatively affected her and her people. Throughout her essay, Moody addresses issues related to racism and segregation in a way that is unconventional and unexpected. She gives her readers a look at the struggles she experienced from a very unique point of view.
When Moody was young, she first came to realize the extent of racism and segregation while at …show more content…

She explained the struggles her family experienced and how the whites mistreated them. She shared her frustration about her family members who she felt were brainwashed into accepting the inferior roles assigned to them by the whites. Never before have I heard an African American Civil Rights activist criticize her own family for attributing to their downfall and adding to the low morale of their own people. Moody was too intelligent to be ignorant like her relatives, but was limited in what she could do due to her skin color. This realization, I believe, is what made her move towards the decision to take part as an activist in the Civil Rights …show more content…

The way she describes her experience with Reverend King in a way that expresses her frustration further. She appears to be taken back by the way that her people were leading their demonstrations in terms of dreams, singing, and dancing, instead of in a more “productive” and serious way. I have never, through out all of my education, heard anyone criticize the way African American’s fought for their rights as Moody did in her autobiography. To speak of Civil Rights leaders and the demonstrations in such a negative light opened my eyes to a completely different way of looking at things. Additionally, the intense details of her friends and co-demonstrators being brutally beaten and killed while others stood bye and watched, was shocking, and her criticism of the events was almost more than I had ever expected to be exposed to. I never expected to read criticism of the Civil Rights leaders and the demonstrations by one of their own followers and activists, which is why I believe this criticism by Moody is deserving of great recognition and holds great

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