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libraryofnaz's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
4.5
mintealo's review against another edition
4.0
I didnโt fully finish the book because my essay was due before I read the whole thing but of the 300 pages I read, I enjoyed them and am glad to have been assigned this book in history
seeceeread's review against another edition
4.5
Before Emmett Till's murder, I had known the fear of hunger, hell, and the devil. But now there was a new fear known to me: a fear of being killed just because I was Black.
Essie Mae, daughter of sharecroppers, opens with a narrow escape from a burning home due to the half-hearted care of her mother's young brother. Little joy or cheer marks her childhood. Rather, as the eldest child, Essie Mae has a front row seat to her mother's struggles, and tosses herself into navigating social, economic and interpersonal challenges to ease her family's precarity. Moody vividly discusses myriad episodes such as humiliation at school when new clothes and lunch are too expensive, her precocious approach to organized religion, and interminable forays into the job market. Upon realizing her birth certificate recorded a different name, Essie Mae enthusiastically becomes Anne.
The last chapters are the most intriguing: Anne is still a stellar scholar, an outspoken and influential charmer among her peers ... and now, a Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) organizer. She drags a friend to the white ticket kiosk of a bus depot to protest segregated service. Moody coordinates rallies, teens' flier distribution, and the participation of reluctant clergy in movement activities. She's attacked as she attempts to integrate a department store lunch counter, then a Klan target, as she maps homes in KKK strongholds to reach voter registration goals. She writes of despair, burnout, disdain, delight and skepticism.
Moody is a fantastic griot; this reads like Walker Alexander's ๐๐๐ฏ๐ถ๐น๐ฒ๐ฒ and Gaines' ๐๐๐๐ผ๐ฏ๐ถ๐ผ๐ด๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ฝ๐ต๐ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐ ๐ถ๐๐ ๐๐ฎ๐ป๐ฒ ๐ฃ๐ถ๐๐๐บ๐ฎ๐ปโboth historical fiction focused on a Black woman's life through essential US chapters. While Martin Luther King, Jr, Bayard Rustin and Dave Dennis may be better known, the day-to-day commitments of people like Anne Moody are truly historic. She fought family, neighbors, employers and sometimes friends to convert the fearful into Kelley's "race rebels," and rebels into a collective force for lasting change.
hannahvwarren's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
5.0
willowquinn's review against another edition
5.0
This is a hard one to read. Anne's story of growing up in rural Mississippi in one of the most racist counties in the south. Folks in Jackson recommended it to us when we went through on the cycle tour.
aurorabulgaris's review against another edition
3.0
It's a very interesting book, but biographies are def not my cup of tea - the "action" drags with immense detail that I just get bored of quickly, but it sets the atmosphere quite nicely.
lalylikesbees's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
3.75