Coming Of Age In Mississippi By Anne Moody Essay

Anne Moody’s involvement in the Civil Rights Movement is fueled by anger at the system she was raised to adhere to. The implications of black social rules reveal themselves in Emmitt Till’s murder, and the case spurs her interest in the NAACP, an organization banned in rural Mississippi. For Moody, Coming of Age in Mississippi means to see the world through the lens of a poor black woman from the rural South. She becomes an activist and aligns with the intentions of the greater movement, but can’t shake the feeling that part of the problem is being ignored. Generational differences,

Ideas about race vary greatly by generation, and this contrast catalyzed the Civil Rights movement. At the age of fifteen and in the wake of Emmitt Till’s murder,

She realizes that there is a difference between her and her white skinned cousins, but doesn’t understand why they’re not afforded whiteness. Privilege is apparently not inherent to melanin levels, but the meaning of skin color is clear. Raymond’s mother shuns Toosweet and the family because their skin is darker than theirs, a signal of internalized racism within the black community. Moody’s friend tells her she has to “be high yellow with a rich-ass daddy” to attend Tougaloo College. After years of institutionalized racism, some black people have bought into the white ideal. Those who bought into this idea both held back the purpose of Civil Rights and decreased solidarity among blacks. Though the oppressed group certainly does not have to fight against the institution in power, it is important to remember that many blacks, especially those with light skinned or higher class privilege in Moody’s rural area, did not stand up against internalized

Young people, like Moody, identified with Emmitt Till’s murder, and older people such as Martin Luther King, Jr. caught onto this momentum. Solidarity from strong national leadership and strong community ties in urban areas kept the movement going. Racial issues are inextricably linked to issues of gender and class. Moody is upset by the lack of intersectionality in the Civil Rights movement and ultimately wonders how much it has done for her race. The movement was led by educated blacks and for educated blacks, from Moody’s perspective. We see this problem in nearly every social movement: the most visible are the upper class issues, like marriage equality, while lower class issues such as disproportionate numbers of homeless queer youth go unnoticed. The Civil Rights movement was effective and everyone’s involvement was productive; however, the Civil Rights Act was by no means the end of the battle. King’s death and the decline of the movement left those without a voice through the movement, like Moody’s family and others in the rural South,