Coming Of Age Throughout Mississippi By Anne Moody

1383 Words6 Pages
Coming of age in Mississippi by Anne Moody tells the story of her life as a poor African American growing up in America in the midst of racism and poverty. When Anne Moody was four years old Anne and her little brother had to be left at home while her parents worked in the fields. They were babysat by their uncle who was mean to them and regularly beat her up. In an attempt to scare her he accidentally burned down their house, blaming it on Anne. This event had a tremendous effect on the family and eventually led to her father leaving her mother for a fair-skinned younger woman. Anne noted her mother’s hatred for the other woman in terms of race. She remembered the woman was usually described as “yellow”. This event points out how early Moody’s unique perspective on race began to form. The first time Anne encountered racial segregation, also the first step in her path to becoming an aden they were white, and their whiteness made them better than me. I now realized that not only were they better than me because they were white, but everything they owned and everything connected with them was better than what was available to me. Their whiteness provided them with a pass to downstairs in that nice section and my blackness sent me to the balcony." She even invents a game called doctor to try to find out what it was that made them so much better than her. Another event that impacted Anne Moody greatly was the murder of Emmett Till, a young African American
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