Reviews

Coming of Age in Mississippi: The Classic Autobiography of a Young Black Girl in the Rural South by Anne Moody

booksandbordercollies's review against another edition

4.0

Anne Moodys autobiographical story gives the reader a glimpse into the tremendous sacrifices made by individuals in the civil rights movement for the cause of justice and equality.

tailsmalone's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

Book #5 of the year: “Coming of Age in Mississippi” by Anne Moody. 

Thanks to Joelle for the gift ❤️ This book is a must read. It’s the autobiography of a Mississippi-born and raised Black woman, author, and activist. It’s not an easy read but it provides an important and usually ignored perspective into the civil rights movement of the Deep South. 

gpenn's review against another edition

5.0

man what a book. finished after i moved out of jackson. things have changed but have they? the fight was slacked by our parents generation but i think we will pick it up. a must read for anyone, epsically living in the South

berylbird's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring sad tense medium-paced

3.5

 

An exploration of growing up as a young Black girl in Mississippi, Anne Moody recounts her life with raw facts and unflinching emotion.  The details of Moody’s life are revelatory regarding the harsh disparity between blacks and whites in economics, education, and the justice system.

Moody was born in 1940; Emmet Till in 1941.  Moody talks about the shock waves of anger and fear that reverberated through Black communities when Till’s murder occurs in 1955.  At the time, she is working for a white woman who tells her, “He was killed because he got out of place with a white woman.  A boy from Mississippi would have known better.  This boy was from Chicago.”  Moody says this brought into her life a new fear of “being killed just because I was black.”  Moody is fifteen years old and for the first time, she not only deals with this new fear, but also begins to experience hate.  She writes, “I hated all the other whites who were responsible for the countless murders Mrs. Rice had told me about..”

Mississippi was one of the most repressive states for blacks in the Jim Crow south.  539 lynchings are recorded between the end of Reconstruction and the 1960s.  Mississippi didn’t have as many Jim Crow laws as other states because they weren’t needed.  Force of custom maintained things as whites dictated according to ‘American Radio Works’ report, A State of Siege, Mississippi:  A Place Apart.

Anne Moody’s account is invaluable as it shows what was happening during important moments of the Civil Rights Movement.  She was a participant in the sit-in at Woolworth’s in Jackson, Mississippi in 1963.  The cruelty and inhumanity of whites as they resisted this attempt of black students and faculty from Tougaloo College making a statement that they deserved service in the whites section of the diner is mind-blowing.  Mustard, ketchup, scalding coffee, beatings, curses, horrible denigrations, and intermittent assaults occurred, all while police looked on.  It’s hard to imagine the kind of courage it would have taken to withstand this kind of abuse for hours.  This incident and other civil action demonstrations began to let people across the US and around the world know the truth about how blacks were being treated in Mississippi and across much of the south.  

The tide was being turned and young black people like Anne Moody were at the forefront, sometimes at great cost.  Moody was on the verge of collapse from the mental, emotional, and physical strain at different junctures in her fight for equal rights. 

For the most part, Anne Moody seems self-aware, intelligent, and driven for the Movement.  Her mother warns her to stay away from her home community where her name is on the Klan blacklist.  She lived and worked intermittently  in New Orleans and met family members there, but fear kept her from returning to her home community for many years.  Much of her Civil Rights work takes place in Canton, Mississippi.  

I would have liked to know more about Moody’s feelings/emotions as they occurred.  I did learn some of them as she neared collapse, but it felt very surface, not as deep and reflective as I would have wished.  I lost some interest toward the end of the book, and I think the constant reporting of protests and meetings added to this.  Moody was a plucky and determined warrior and deserves to be remembered for her contributions to the Civil Rights Movement.  Having her first hand account made this a worthwhile read. 

 

laurelinwonder's review against another edition

5.0

You know, just when you think you have read all of the books that seem to fall into the category of racism in the South, you come across something like this, that blows the idea that you can't read anymore out of the water. This is so well written, I could not put it down. Very different than many similar books, this is a must read, especially for life writing scholars and lovers alike.

lindsayshugar's review against another edition

5.0

i only started reading this because i had to for class but holy fuck everyone should read this book

crownab's review against another edition

3.0

I enjoyed this book much more than I thought I would initially. The book was assigned reading for one of my college courses, and I would not have read it otherwise. This young woman story should be inspiring to everyone and her passion contagious!

beccabookworm's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective tense medium-paced

4.0

annesurelyreads's review against another edition

4.0

This book was a very eye opening experience for me. Anne Moody not only discusses white oppression but how African Americans, in some ways, oppressed themselves. A huge figure in the movement, Moody's biography is an honest and true journey through her life and the civil rights movement.

ginger_curmudgeon's review against another edition

3.0

Moody's work is good, but it is definitely a slow read. The lack of any form of plot is frustrating. She states everything that happened in her life very matter-of-factly. Then again, that's probably appropriate since she describes her family as not being the kind to hug, kiss or express any form of emotion. At times I was left wondering if the some of the grammatical errors belonged to the editor or to Moody. Another point of irritation is Moody's habit of jumping around time-wise. Obviously she can't write about everything and every year of her life, but it felt a couple of times as if she went forward in time, only to go back to where she had been. Overall, it's definitely a good book and it stands as a good study of life in the South. I kept thinking that if I were to actually become a college professor in some far off time and land, and I was forced to teach William Faulkner, I'd want to use texts like this one to compliment the study of his literature.