Coming of Age In Mississippi
Research papers on Coming of Age in Mississippi give a historical overview of an important time in America's history through a great work of literature. Paper Masters can custom write a research paper on the memoir or on Moody's life. You decide exactly what you need.
Anne Moody's memoir Coming of Age in Mississippi, originally published in 1968, tells the dramatic story of the segregated South and the Civil Rights struggles of the 1960s from the inside. Moody, as a young college student, was instrumental in organizing the following two pivotal Civil Rights organizations:
- SNCC - Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
- CORE - Congress of Racial Equality
Moody's book, although it ends on a note of pessimism, provides a valuable insight into race relationships during this period of history.
Coming of Age in Mississippi and Racism
There are many scholars and ordinary individuals who claim that race relations in America are still largely based on racism; they cite incidence of racial profiling as proof that America is still a land of inequality for African-Americans. Anne Moody's book opens at a time not that far distant from our own, but one that physically appears more akin to the nineteenth century than the twentieth century. Anne Moody's parents were sharecroppers, the exploitative system of farm labor that replaced slavery during the Reconstruction period. "We all lived in rotten wood two-room shacks," Moody tells us. Anne was almost four years old and describes the wretched physical conditions of her life with great detail.
Coming of Age in Mississippi
Perhaps the most vivid image is that of the electric lights coming down from the plantation house. "The electric lights were coming on in Mr. Carter's big white house as all the Negro shacks down in the bottom began to fade with the darkness". This is the middle of the twentieth century and in the United States, and the African-American families did not have electricity. This is probably a clear example of the state of race relations in the South during this period than segregated buses and lunch counters. Black people were being denied, not just access to some of the relative comforts of society, but a basic necessity of life.