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    Coming of Age in Mississippi
    Coming of Age in Mississippi
    Coming of Age in Mississippi
    Audiobook15 hours

    Coming of Age in Mississippi

    Written by Anne Moody

    Narrated by Lisa Renee Pitts

    5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Born to a poor couple who were tenant farmers on a plantation in Mississippi, Anne Moody lived through some of the most dangerous days of the pre-civil rights era in the South. The week before she began high school came the news of Emmet Till's lynching. Before then, she had "known the fear of hunger, hell, and the Devil. But now there was…the fear of being killed just because I was black." In that moment was born the passion for freedom and justice that would change her life.An all-A student whose dream of going to college is realized when she wins a basketball scholarship, she finally dares to join the NAACP in her junior year. Through the NAACP and later through CORE and SNCC she has first-hand experience of the demonstrations and sit-ins that were the mainstay of the civil rights movement, and the arrests and jailings, the shotguns, fire hoses, police dogs, billy clubs and deadly force that were used to destroy it.A deeply personal story but also a portrait of a turning point in our nation's destiny, this autobiography lets us see history in the making, through the eyes of one of the footsoldiers in the civil rights movement.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateDec 31, 2012
    ISBN9781452681115
    Coming of Age in Mississippi

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    Reviews for Coming of Age in Mississippi

    5/5

    36 ratings16 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Should be required reading for History and Social Studies in High School.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      This book should be required reading for every person who lives in the United States. It gives unusual insights into what was going on behind the scenes during the fight for racial equality. For someone who was just born in the mid-60's it gave me a better appreciation of the bravery and guts these people had and the brilliance of their grassroots planning. I can't imagine anyone not being awestruck by Anne Moody's story. It's very personal, but ties into a great deal of important historical information about the Civil Rights movement.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      This book was amazing. My words can't do it justice.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      It's been awhile since I've given any book I've read 5 stars. But this account of growing up in Mississippi during what turns out to be the ground-shaking Civil Rights Movement is SO good. From childhood to age 25 (which is where the autobiography stops), Moody describes how her life was affected by the lack of, and eventually the fight for, equal rights for African Americans. It's crazy. I can't belief life was actually like that 60 years ago. Anne Moody was a fighter, and the story of her struggle alongside the Movement in the 60's and 70's is nothing short of valiant and courageous. I deeply admire this woman, and am grateful to her and people like her who fought so hard to change this country. We're in a better place today because of it.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Good enough to have read several times over the course of 20 plus years.
    • 3/5
      The author starts with early memories of traumatic events in her life. She seems to be very naive of events that happen regarding racism. Her mother doesn't educate her in this realm. When Anne goes to college she becomes an active member for the civil rights movement - somewhat of a zealot -and she expect every one in her family, every black person for that matter, to join the cause and to think and do as she does.
      This is a good book.
    • 4/5
      I liked this a lot more than I thought I would! I might even keep it or get a non crappy edition of it!
    • 5/5
      If you’re interested in diving into a good book about the Civil Rights movement, and get a good idea of what every day life was like for people of color in the segregated south, then make this powerful autobiography your first book. This is one of the many books that everyone needs to read today.
    • 4/5
      Really good memoir of a young black girl who lived through the civil rights struggle in Mississippi in the '60s.
    • 5/5
      I came of age during the time period that is covered in this wonderful autobiography and it brought back both good memories as well as bad memories. It was a horrible time period in the history of our country and unfortunately the racial tension has racial relations have not improved a lot. I am too old to get back out to march again but that was a time of giants.
    • 4/5
      A good, personal account of Jim Crow-era life in Mississippi. The author's family life, schooling, and social situations are painfully recounted, and she gives an excellent insider's chronicle of the Civil Rights movement. Moody was a pioneer.
    • 5/5
      This should be required reading of all students in America. Excellent glimpse into the horrors of living as a black women during the 1950's and 1960's.
    • 5/5
      Highly recommended memoir about a courageous black woman who grew up in Mississippi and had an active role in the Civil Rights movement.

    • 3/5
      Interesting insights into a life I'll never know. I've learned about most of these events in history class, but it is much more interesting to hear it first hand.
    • 5/5
      This is an unforgettable and powerful autobiography of growing up poor and black in rural Mississippi. Anne Moody was born into poverty in rural Wilkinson County Mississippi in 1940. She got her first job at 9 years old. A few weeks before she entered high school, Emmet Till was murdered a few towns down the road. "Before Emmet Till's murder, I had known the fear of hunger, hell, and the Devil. But now there was a new fear known to me--the fear of being killed just because I was black." "But I didn't know what one had to do or not do as a Negro not to be killed."In high school she learned it was dangerous to even ask what the NAACP was. Nevertheless, after graduation she attended a black college and began participating in civil rights organizing activities. She participated in the first lunch counter sit-ins in Jackson, and she also participated in voter registration efforts. Her family begged her to stop her activities, telling her she was trying to get every Negro in her town murdered. Wilkinson County where she was born and raised was considered too "tough" at the time for organizers to tackle. Members of her family were in fact murdered, and she learned that she herself was on a KKK hit list.She was at the rally after which Medgar Evers was assassinated. The book ends in 1964, when she is on a bus on the way to DC to attend Congressional hearings and attend a rally with Martin Luther King. The people on the bus are singing "We shall overcome," and Anne ends the book, "I WONDER. I REALLY WONDER." The book was written in 1968, when she was only 28. I finished the book hungering for more information about her life, and I learned a bit from Wikipedia, but unfortunately she did not write another book.This book brought home to me in a way that was personal and visceral the dangers faced by those working in the civil rights movement in the south in the 1960's, and the atrocities of the Jim Crow era. I knew it was bad, but it was so much worse that I imagined, and I admire these heroes so much. Senator Ted Kennedy called it, "A history of our time seen from the bottom up." Everyone should read this book.
    • 5/5
      [Coming of Age in Mississippi] by [[Anne Moody]]Anne Moody's memoir of her childhood and young adult years growing up Black in Mississippi is raw and honest and full of pain. Moody was born in 1940 in rural Mississippi. She grew up in poverty with a father who deserted her mother and then a mostly absent stepfather. She began working in service at a young age to earn money. A good student, Moody's education and drive are a large part of the book, but her need to make money is always present. She goes to college and starts working with the civil rights movement - participating in sit-ins and demonstrations and trying to stir up support among the Black population. This book is hard to read for several reasons. Of course, Moody's life is a impossible-to-deny look at how hard life was for Black Americans in the 1950s and 60s. She pulls no punches talking about how all opportunities were denied for her and her family and everything was a struggle. Her language is coarse and angry at times, with lots of swearing, as is understandable considering what she was fighting against. She blames many different people for the lack of change - recognizing the systemic racism in government systems, questioning the efficacy of peaceful protest, calling out police corruption, and screaming in frustration at fellow Blacks who refuse to vote. Her book is keenly observant and incredibly moving. It is not easy to read, but it is just as important today as it was when it was written in 1968. For me, it clearly shows why we are still where we are today. This was life in America just over 40 years ago.