Analysis Of The Coming Of Age In Mississippi By Anne Moody

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The book “The Coming of Age in Mississippi” is a well written autobiography by Anne Moody herself. It tells the story of how black people were treated after the Civil War of 1861-1865. Although black people were given freedom through the 13th, 14th and 15th constitutional amendments, white people still made sure that the black people do not get an equal right that is why they made the Jim Crow laws; the racial segregation laws enacted in United States between the years 1876-1965. The book is divided in different chapters in Anne Moody’s life: childhood, high school, college and the movement.
In the first part of the book, Anne Moody narrates what it’s like growing up as a child in the plantation of a white man named Mr. Carter. Anne lives …show more content…

During this time of her life, Anne began to catch the boys in her high school and the men in her community. She becomes so popular with the boys that she was elected to be the homecoming queen. Anne’s father provided her a beautiful gown which she greatly appreciated. She considered that event one of the best days in her life. Anne also narrates in this chapter the part in her life when her mother had a relationship with a man named, Raymond Davis. Anne’s mother had four more children with Raymond. Anne enjoyed their new home in Centreville and also the Centreville Baptist Church. Anne got into a fight with her mother when she wanted her to attend church in an older and poorer church in town. In the summer of 1955, something life changing happened when Anne hears about Emmett Till, a 14-year-old black boy from Chicago who was brutally murdered for supposedly whistling at a white woman. This incident opens up her eyes to the rampant racial inequality happening around her. She wondered what real differences black people and white people have. She only knows for a fact that the black women clean white women’s houses. Anne soon enough hears about the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP); an outlawed organization in rural Mississippi which main focus is to determine how racial inequalities can be overthrown. Anne became more interested in the civil rights movement which made her have constant arguments with her mother. Eventually, Anne moved in with her father because she cannot tolerate her mother opposing her passion and interest in the civil rights