Ann Moody’s book Coming of Age in Mississippi is a powerful memoir that describes what it is like to develop into a full-fledged civil rights activist in Mississippi during a difficult time. Moody is a person who would eventually become a powerful voice for equal rights, but it did not begin this way. In fact, it began only with her taking an interest in the current racial reality facing the country. As more people talked to her about race and the state of things, Ann Moody began to better understand the challenges that she faced as she moved forward in her life. Specifically, it was through keen awareness and the ability to ask questions that Moody gained the perspective that would eventually make her one of the best around at understanding the state of racial tension in the US, and particularly, in the American South.
It was in part the experiences with her family and community as a child that helped to shape Moody into the activist that she would eventually become. Specifically, her encounters with her “white” looking uncles prompted her to ask questions about the state of things. It became apparent to her that something was amiss, and as a result of that, she wanted to know more about why things were the way they were. Beyond that, Moody had experiences with the people at her school. Her homeroom teacher gave her information about the killing of Emmett Till. She wanted to know about the NAACP and what it was. She wanted to know about Till and why he was killed. Her mother cautioned her to be careful with these inquiries, since there were people who might not want to be exposed in this way. She kept asking questions anyway, and she was rewarded for this with knowledge that would change her life. Eventually she was fired from a job in which she worked for white people. She was fired after they refused to pay her for two weeks of her salary. This helped to sour her on white people, and it kept the fire burning strong for her on civil rights at the time. These experiences combined to give her a real understanding of what life was like for black people in her community at that time.
Moody’s life was somewhat different during the time she spent in New Orleans. For one, she was exposed to some of the difficulties of trying to make it in a city for a person who did not have much in the way of resources. She had to fight and claw for everything that she got at that point in time, and this made life difficult for her. In New Orleans, she organized for people who were being exploited. She found at her college that the foot was filled with maggots. This was something that helped to spark in her an understanding of some of the economic and racial overlap. She also recognized that women were being suppressed, as well, prompting her to consider the matrix between racial and sex equality, and the particularized struggle of young black women.
The most tense part of the book was the scene in which she participated in a sit-in at a lunch counter. During this part of the book, she describes the tension that lived in the South at the time. She was with a couple of white allies, and they decided that they would flaunt the laws of the time, sitting at the lunch counter of a restaurant that refused to serve food to black people. When this happened, people began to show up and taunt them. The insults went from verbal to physical. People began to kick them, throw stuff at them, strike them, and smear them with ketchup and mustard. They were dragged and beaten, and the scene goes on to the point that one might wonder whether it was ever going to end. This was a majorly tense scene because there was a real sense that the activists might die. People sometimes do not survive these events, especially in deep Mississippi during that time. One could feel the anger and hatred in the voices of the people who assaulted Moody and her contemporaries.
The Civil Rights Movement had a profound impact on Moody’s life. It turned her into an activist, it allowed her to find an identity, and it made her a leader. It gave her a purpose with her life, and she did not want to give this up. I do not believe that she would have liked the development the country has taken. This is not to say that the country has not improved. Surely, there are some ways in which society has become more just. However, in many ways, the fight for racial justice continues against a hidden and insidious force. In the past, at the very least, the racism was out in front of us, where it could it be seen. It is easy to fight against segregated lunch counters. When the racism comes in the form of dog-whistles, embedded government policies, and institutional racism, it is much more difficult to fight, but it still does plenty of damage. For instance, when a system operates on a racially neutral face, but it actually has an insidious purpose, what can one do to fight it? These are the questions that must be asked, and Moody would probably believe that the country still has a long way to go given its current situation.
- Button, James W. Blacks and social change: Impact of the civil rights movement in southern communities. Princeton University Press, 2014.
