The Role Of Racism In Anne Moody's Life

During her younger childhood years, Anne was never exposed to the reality of how blacks and whites truly got along. Fortunately for her, she was never the victim of a racially motivated attack. Therefore she never truly knew how bad it was. She was always surrounded with white people who saw

. . but specifics [to him] didn’t matter because the victims were now symbols of injustice: a NAACP cause” (78). Especially given the long-past, over-60-years-old nature of the lynching, Wexler’s goal, and therefore also her writing, must more profound, and compelling, than this, and therefore she, unlike White, is interested in the specifics: “Roger and Dorothy Malcolm, and George and Mae Murray [the lynching victims] . . . I have tried to bring them to life” (266). Wexler succeeds in that, rather than merely mentioning these victims in the context of the lynching, she includes detailed biographies of each, as well as of their relations, and describes their actions long before and immediately leading up to the lynching, in an attempt to give the reader a better understanding of and greater empathy for them.

Anne Moody’s autobiography, Coming of Age in Mississippi, depicts the various stages of her life from childhood, to high school, then to college, and ends with her involvement in the Civil Rights Movement. In the novel, Anne tells the reader her story through events, conversations, and emotional struggles. The reader can interpret various elements of cultural knowledge that Anne Moody learned from her family and community as a child. Her understanding of the culture and race relations of the time period was shaped by many forces. Anne Moody’s family, community, education, interactions with various races, and her experiences outside of her hometown, shaped her into a devout activist for equal rights. As a child, the most important

To engage a large audience, Staples appeals to readers with his use to two different points of views throughout the essay: societal views and black views. Staples tries to connect with the readers by giving examples of unconscious thoughts that run through the minds of most people when in the same situation as the “white women.” In his opening sentence, Staples calls the women a “victim.” In her own eyes, she herself was “victim” due to the influence of generalized stereotypes presented in our culture. She becomes quick to judge based on Staples appearance: his skin tone. Because of his color, his every action becomes nothing but threats and anxiety on the women. “She casted a back worried glance. To her, the youngish black- broad six feet two inches with a beard and billowing hair, both hands shoved into the pockets of a

I feel that Anne Moody story is a blunt open description of how hard live was for Blacks.

     Soon after Moody entered high school, Emmett Till, a fourteen-year-old boy from Chicago, was killed for whistling at a white woman. After hearing about the murder, Moody realized she really did not know much about what was going on around her. ?Before Emmett 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.? Moody?s response to this was asking her high school teacher, Mrs. Rice, about Emmett?s murder and the NAACP.

She then goes on to talk about how the justice system criminalizes these deceased black men into “big” and “scary” to try to make them look guilty or deserving of whatever happened to them and save the officers involved. Anderson really focuses on this one case and how it impacted her thoughts and feelings towards the white America.

Before this, Moody was under the impression that "Evil Spirits" were to blame for the mysterious deaths of African Americans, "Up until his death, I had heard of Negroes found floating in a river or dead somewhere with their bodies riddled with bullets . . . When I asked her (Mama) who killed the man and why, she said, ‘An Evil Spirit killed him. You gotta be a good girl or will kill you too.' So since I was seven, I had lived in fear of that ‘Evil Spirit.'" She became very upset and feared "being killed just because I was black. This was the worst of my fears." Moody eventually comes to learn about the NAACP and what they stood for, that this organization is trying to help improve the situation for African Americans like her. Unfortunately, when she tried to ask her mother about this she does not get any answers. Instead, her mother gets upset with her and asks her to never mention it around any white person. Moody felt frustrated that all these years that she had been sheltered from the truth and she felt dumb for never having opened her eyes to all the horror.

It was a violent sentiment, but Moody, more than half a century later, would have approved. She, too, faced a powerful establishment, and as it grew more violent, Moody grew more hateful of white people. She hated them because they hated black people.

     Anne Moody, like many other young people, joined the civil rights movement because they wanted to make a difference in their state. They wanted their freedom and the same rights as the white people had. Many other young people joined the civil rights movement because they felt that a change was needed in the way black people were treated. They felt that this change

There is the prejudice of facing whites against blacks, and also the prejudice of lighter-skinned blacks toward darker-skinned blacks, and of people with money against poorer people something that shouldn’t be a factor . As Dr.King stated" I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character". Anne experiences each kind of prejudice, which causes her great pain. In fact, being the victim of prejudice tends to disgust Anne herself against whites and lighter-skinned blacks. Her aversion is shown by the fact that she basically refuses to attend Tugaloo College, the place where she joins the civil rights movement, because she fears that it has too many light-skinned black students.With not trusting her professors because they are white, and the Reverend Edward King, who is, worse yet, a southern white. Finally, after meeting lighter-skinned blacks and whites who do not look down on her, Anne agrees that not all people of these associations are disloyal . However, racism nearly costs her essential opportunities in her life, and makes her a suspicious and pessimistic

She became frustrated at her own people because they would not stand up for themselves while there were horrible things were happening to blacks. How can you not sympathize with someone who believed so much in equality and freedom that her picture was on the Ku Klux Klan black list? She worked so hard for Negro equality that she risked her life day in and day out and came close to starving to death just trying to recruit other Negroes to join her cause. Her family begged her to stop helping with the movement in fear of their lives as well as hers. Moody could not even return to her own town out of concern for her safety and that of her family.

While both parties experienced racial divide growing up X’s was far more violent. X’s father was murdered by Whites, “My father's skull, on one side, was crushed in” is how X described his father’s body after the violent beating (X 37). White men also burned his house down while his family was sleeping inside “My mother, with the baby in her arms, just made it into the yard before the house crashed in, showering sparks” (X 25). These terroristic acts upon X’s family as a young child led to his deep rooted hate of White Americans. Another major difference in the upbring of the two was the White people Moody was around for the most part were respectful of her up until high school. On the other hand Whites that came into contact with X treated him terribly. In the autobiography he recalls his history teacher “One day during my first week at school, I walked into the room and he started singing to the class, as a joke, “ Way down yonder in the cotton field, some folks say that a nigger won’t steal.” (X 75). Moody did see how the whites were treated differently in society however. For example when her and her mother are furniture shopping and

Anne Moody’s Life and the Struggle for Civil Rights Why do we learn history? It is not merely learning events of the past but an understanding how we have reached the present and what it took to get there. Knowledge of the past also helps us predict the future through examples of seen and unforeseen consequences following action. More importantly, it gives a reason as to why today, the United States government puts an emphasis on equality more than ever, or do they?

The article “ Emmett Till Biography” states that Emmett Till and a group of teenagers went to Bryant's Grocery and Meat Market to purchase refreshments after working in the hot sun all day. The article then goes on to tell us that Emmett Till was accused of whistling at the store’s white female clerk, Carolyn Bryant. It was unacceptable for a black man to have any interactions with a white women and if this were to happen racial violence would be produced. This makes America wonder why Emmett Till acted the way he did. This angered many white people including Carolyn Bryant’s husband. The article “Emmett Till is Murdered” states that the white woman's husband and her brother made Emmett carry a seventy-five pound cotton-gin to the Tallahatchie River and then forced him take his clothes off. The article then goes on to tell us that the men beat him almost to death, gouged his eyes out, and then tied him to the cotton-gin and threw him into the river. This shows how racially violent people were in America during this time. This event brought people's attention to racial