Coming Of Age In Mississippi By Anne Moody

Anne Moody’s memoir, Coming of Age in Mississippi, documents life growing up in Mississippi during the 1960s. The book outlines her life through her childhood, high school days, college life, and while she was a part of the civil rights movement. In the memoir, Moody serves as a direct voice for herself and her fellow African American neighbors, whom were enduring continued unequal treatment, despite the rights they had won after the Civil War. Part one of, Coming of Age in Mississippi, begins on Mr. Carter’s plantation in Anne’s childhood. During this time, there were many problems that stood out in Anne’s life each and every day. First, we are introduced to a scenario in which Anne and her sister are being watched by their careless cousin, George Lee. Because Lee feels like he has better things to do than

When Anne and her sister’s parents arrive back home, Lee blames the incident on Anne and she ultimately ends up taking the punishment, from her father, for something she did not do. She states that he, “…beat me on my naked behind. The licks came hard one after the other (pg 9).” Soon after this incident, Anne’s father leaves her mother for a light skinned woman. Anne soon begins being confronted with issues of race while visiting the home of her grandmother. There she meets two men, Sam and Walter, whom appear white, and who turn out to be her uncles. At such a young age, Anne did not understand what differentiated white from black. However, she explains, “Every time I tried to talk to Mama about white people she got mad (pg 35).” She even accounts of a time she played a game called “Doctor” in which she asked her white friends and her sister to take off all of their clothes, so she could