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Coming of Age in Mississippi | Introduction

By the late 1960s, the civil rights movement had seen enormous successes along with tragic losses. Significant anti-discrimination legislation had been passed, but in the view of many civil rights activists, society had not changed enough. The civil rights movement itself was transforming, turning away from the non-violence of Martin Luther King to a more militant stance epitomized by Malcolm X. Into this confusion, in 1968, Moody published her autobiography, Coming of Age in Mississippi. This startling depiction of what it was like to grow up a poor, southern African American captured the attention of Americans around the country from all social classes and all backgrounds. Moody, intimately involved in the civil rights movement in the first half of the 1960s, created an unforgettable image of the inequities and violence that characterized southern society.

Instead of focusing on her years in the civil rights movement, Moody chose to start at the beginning—when she was four years old, the child of poor sharecroppers working for a white farmer. In telling the story of her life, Moody shows why the civil rights movement was such a necessity and the depth of the injustices it had to correct; Moody's autobiography depicts the uphill battle that faced all southern African Americans.

More than thirty years later, Moody's autobiography still retains the power it had for its first readers. Part of the book's long-lasting appeal is its basic humanity. Despite herself, Moody gets drawn into the fight for civil rights, knowing the challenge is incredibly difficult but knowing she has no other path to take.

Coming of Age in Mississippi Summary

Part One: Childhood
The narrator of Coming of Age in Mississippi Anne Moody (born Essie Mae), spends her first four years in a sharecropper's shack on a plantation owned by a white farmer. Her parents work long hours in the fields. Daddy begins gambling and takes up with another woman, and eventually he deserts the family. Mama and the children move off the plantation, closer to the town of Centreville. Mama supports the family through domestic and restaurant work but often does not earn enough money even for food.

By the time Anne is in the fourth grade, she works regularly after school and on weekends to help support her family. They move into a house that Mama's boyfriend, Raymond, builds for them. Eventually, Raymond and Mama marry, but Raymond is unable to provide for the ever-growing family. Despite working many hours to help support the family, Anne continues to excel in school. She makes top grades, starts playing basketball, and is elected homecoming queen.

Part Two: High School
As Anne enters high school, a fourteen-year-old, African-American boy is killed for whistling at a white woman. Anne realizes that she has overlooked the racial problems and violence that surround her. She now fears ‘‘being killed just because I was black.’’ After the murder, Anne overhears Mrs. Burke and her ‘‘guild meeting’’ discuss the NAACP, and she finds out from her teacher that this organization is trying to improve the situation for southern African Americans. She feels hatred toward almost everyone: whites who kill African Americans and African Americans for not doing anything to stop these actions. The tensions between the white and black communities of Centreville escalate, resulting in the beating of one of Anne's classmates and the deliberate setting of a fire that kills almost an entire family.

These events, and the talk surrounding them, upset Anne greatly, so she goes to spend the summer with Uncle Ed, who lives in New Orleans. When she returns to Centreville, she learns of more racial problems that end with a cousin of hers being run out of town. When she asks her family about it, they just get angry and refuse to talk. Anne gets the feeling that Raymond hates her.

To take her mind off her problems, Anne becomes very busy with studies, extracurricular activities, and work. She also begins to tutor Mrs. Burke's son, Wayne, and his white friends in math. Wayne and Anne become friends, which makes Mrs. Burke angry and nervous. Wayne and Mrs. Burke fight over his relationship with Anne, and Anne quits working for Mrs. Burke after she implies that... » Complete Coming of Age in Mississippi Summary