Coming of Age In Mississippi Summary
A summary on Coming of Age in Mississippi by Anne Moody can be custom written by the literature writers at Paper Masters. A summary will let you know the common themes, the main characters and the plot of the memoir that has served as a staple for a young woman's coming of age.
Anne Moody's novel Coming of Age in Mississippi is summarized by exploring the following themes:
- Anne Moody's struggle against racism
- Sexism growing up in the Jim Crow South
- Becoming involved in the Civil Rights Movement.
The book opens with a four-year-old Anne living in a two-room shack with her parents and sister, a sharecropping family living without electricity or running water. Anne's father, Diddly, leaves the family after having an affair with another woman, leaving her mother Toosweet to raise three children on her own.
Moving from one place to another, Anne and her family are frequently hungry, often having only leftover table scraps. Despite this hardship, young Anne excels in school. She also begins working as a domestic while still in the fourth grade, cleaning the houses of white families, a job she will keep through high school. In the summer of 1955, after the murder of Emmett Till, Anne slowly becomes involved in the Civil Rights struggle. This struggle against the larger society is mirrored by struggles within her own family.
Two years at Natchez College are followed by a transfer to Tougaloo College, where Anne joins the NAACP, despite the personal danger. Anne famously takes part in the Woolworth lunch counter sit-ins in Jackson, and joins CORE, a leading student-run civil rights organization. However, Anne comes to see that, despite the efforts of these groups, not much has changed for African Americans in Mississippi. The memoir ends as Anne boards a bus for Washington, DC, wondering if racism will ever be overcome in America.