Toosweet's Ignorance To The Civil Rights Movement

In Anne Moody’s memoir, she is faced with many obstacles and one of the major ones is her own mother, Toosweet. Toosweet resists the urge for the movement to continue because she projects her fear of change very clearly while Anne on the other hand is desperately aspiring change for blacks in the southern community. Toosweet sustains a hold on Anne encouraging her to live her life as everyone else and so she continues standing as a barrier between Anne and the movement. Yet, Anne finds all the more reason to continue her work as a member of the NAACP and Core. Anne not only wants to end segregation but to prove to her mother that she is capable of such an advance. Toosweet’s ignorance to the Civil Rights Movement causes Anne to gravitate towards the movement.

As a young girl, she was innocent and unaware of all the discrimination in the south. Growing up, Anne has dealt with severe poverty and is often the one bringing income to her family’s home along with her mother. Her employers are a huge factor as to why she is so drawn to the movement. For instance, when Anne learned about Emmitt Till being killed, she ran to her mother for an explanation but her mother had replied “…just do your work like you don’t know nothing… that boy’s a lot better off in heaven than he is here” (262). Her mother brushing off the death of Emmitt Till took the best of her curiosities and she questioned why her mother was acting so afraid although it was obvious that. This was the rise of her knowledge of discrimination amongst blacks and the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement for Anne. Through all of life’s hardships, she always found a purpose and kept her head held