A review by seeceeread
Coming of Age in Mississippi by Anne Moody

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 𝗝𝘂𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗲𝗲 and Gaines' 𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗼𝗯𝗶𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗵𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗠𝗶𝘀𝘀 𝗝𝗮𝗻𝗲 𝗣𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗺𝗮𝗻—both 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.