Blunt, powerful, and angry, Coming of Age in Mississippi dares the reader to find anything poetic in the lives of black people living in rural Mississippi in the 1940s and 50s, "where they knew, as I knew, the price you pay daily for being black." Anne Moody begins with her childhood - houses papered with newspaper, children left alone because parents have to work, her own after-school housecleaning jobs that begin at the age of nine so she can help her family eat. Smart and athletic, she earns scholarships through college, but her thoughts are increasingly consumed by the racism that surrounds her. She is one of the original protestors at the Woolworth's counter in Jackson; after college she helps lead a voter registration drive in rural Canton, Mississippi, "where Negroes frequently turned up dead." She describes finding her own name on a Klan "wanted" list, seeing a boy beaten as FBI agents watch from across the street, hearing of murders - Emmet Till, Medgar Evars, John F. Kennedy, her own uncle. She lives her life knowing she can no longer return safely to her hometown and feeling estranged from family members who do not share her passionate commitment to fight racism. She is easy on no one, not even Martin Luther King, whose nonviolent stance she eventually questions. Anne Moody's book, written when she was twenty-eight, is both proof of her convictions and a forthright testament to the sacrifices, terror, and courage that made up the U.S. Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. -- For great reviews of books for girls, check out Let's Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14. -- From 500 Great Books by Women; review by Erica Bauermeister |
Part One: Childhood |
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