The American South in Coming of Age in Mississippi
The American South in "Coming of Age in Mississippi"
Anne Moody’s book, Coming of Age in Mississippi, not only portrays the life of a young black female struggling to grow up from the 1940s to the 1960s, it takes a look at how racism and movements for racial equality effected the main character, Essie Mae, as well as the whole society. This book recounts the life of Essie Mae, who is actually Anne Moody herself, from the age of four to the age of twenty-four. It depicts a time that some may consider to be one of the hardest times to grow up a poor black in America.
Essie May grew up in a time in which, although many things had changes, there was still a great deal of racial inequality and discrimination. Families such as hers lived in poorly built homes on the property of the white families for whom they worked. Essie gave many first hand accounts of watching her parents, mainly her mother, work long, hard hours most of the week, only to bring home a small amount of pay that could barely take care of her family. It was only a matter of time before Essie herself would be working long hours for white families for little pay in order to help support herself and her siblings.
As Essie grew older and began to befriend white children, she began to notice how similar she was to the “white folks” physically and yet, how different their lives were. She could not understand how and why people so similar had to live so differently. She questioned the segregation of the schools and churches they attended and the movie theaters they frequented. By the time she reached her teens, Essie Mae, now known as Anne, had grown tired of the beatings and killings of people she knew as well as other African Americans. She had begun to immerse herself in activities such as basketball, band, and church groups in order to keep her mind off what was happening around her.
It was after she graduated from Johnson High School, left Natchez Junior College where she attended on a basketball scholarship, and enrolled in Tougaloo College that Anne began to take a full interest in institutions such as the NAACP and the SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordination Committee). It is at this point in the book...