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emalazereth's review against another edition
Coming of age during such a dangerous political climate is addressed well in this novel. Amazed that the author makes readers reaccess a famous speech by an activist mentioned later on in the book.
rebeccasfantasyworld's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
usernamemustbeunique's review against another edition
5.0
This is one of my favorite books of all time. It’s the epitome of a coming out age novel and doesn’t pull any punches. I would recommend it to anyone interested in this period of American history or who enjoys reading works by/with strong female protagonists.
jensen1's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
fast-paced
A must read !!! I never heard about Anne Moody in school. Unsurprising but disappointing nonetheless. She was a remarkable woman in the civil rights movement.
rgyger's review against another edition
4.0
Was mostly enjoyable. I had to read it for class and found it to be by far my favorite of all the ones assigned to us. My one real complaint is that I could have done without all of the language, but since it is an autobiography (and I've not read many of those) I'm not sure that could have been changed.
bek67's review against another edition
This is absolutely a story that needs to be told and needs to be heard. But I could not connect with the author and I tried. I really tried. With all the horrible things that were endured, there was never a sense of the emotion experienced with it. I felt like I was reading a news article or listening to a newscast. There was never any emotion connected to what I read. Three weeks in and I still was only 77% through. This book is a little over 400 pages. If I'm interested, I can finish a book this size in 3-5 days! I honestly was not concerned that it was due back at the library and I was close to finishing but not quite there. I think the author was an amazing woman, a trailblazer. Maybe I need to try a different type of book. A biography perhaps. I am interested in Anne Moody, but this book did not do it for me.
shelleyanderson4127's review against another edition
challenging
informative
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
5.0
This award-winning autobiography, first published in 1968, has become an American classic. Deservedly so. It's a story of growing black, female, and poor in rural Mississippi. It's matter-of-fact style makes the hunger, humiliation and racist violence even more gut-wrenching.
Anne Moody (1940-2015) was one of nine children in a family of tenet farmers. The disparity she saw between how black and white Southerners lived sent her on a collision course in her small town. After winning a basketball scholarship to a black college, she became involved in the pioneering civil rights work of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the NAACP.
In 1963, still a student, she helped organize a sit-in at a Woolworth counter in Jackson, Mississippi, to protest segregation. There a mob of 300 whites attacked the three student protesters, hurling blows as well as racial epithets "After the sit-in, all I could think of was how sick Mississippi whites were," she wrote. "They believed so much in the segregated Southern way of life, they were willing to kill to preserve it...I knew that the killing had just begun."
A few weeks later Medgar Evers is murdered in front of his own home. Moody began work with a voter registration campaign in another town, where she describes the daily intimidation, and where her work earns her a place on a Ku Klux Klan hit list. She also learns she would be killed if she returned to her home town, because of her activism.
This is a gripping story of a woman which shows both an activist's fierceness and her vulnerability. It shows the cost paid for standing up for social justice, the sheer work involved, and the camaraderie. It ends as Moody is boarding a bus to take her and others to the historic 1963 March on Washington, DC. As she listens to the beautiful song "We Shall Overcome", she thinks, "I wonder. I really wonder."
It is a question for all of us.
Anne Moody (1940-2015) was one of nine children in a family of tenet farmers. The disparity she saw between how black and white Southerners lived sent her on a collision course in her small town. After winning a basketball scholarship to a black college, she became involved in the pioneering civil rights work of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the NAACP.
In 1963, still a student, she helped organize a sit-in at a Woolworth counter in Jackson, Mississippi, to protest segregation. There a mob of 300 whites attacked the three student protesters, hurling blows as well as racial epithets "After the sit-in, all I could think of was how sick Mississippi whites were," she wrote. "They believed so much in the segregated Southern way of life, they were willing to kill to preserve it...I knew that the killing had just begun."
A few weeks later Medgar Evers is murdered in front of his own home. Moody began work with a voter registration campaign in another town, where she describes the daily intimidation, and where her work earns her a place on a Ku Klux Klan hit list. She also learns she would be killed if she returned to her home town, because of her activism.
This is a gripping story of a woman which shows both an activist's fierceness and her vulnerability. It shows the cost paid for standing up for social justice, the sheer work involved, and the camaraderie. It ends as Moody is boarding a bus to take her and others to the historic 1963 March on Washington, DC. As she listens to the beautiful song "We Shall Overcome", she thinks, "I wonder. I really wonder."
It is a question for all of us.
alissaraefun's review against another edition
4.0
Full of great insight into the beginnings of the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi