What are the most Difficult Obstacles to Black Progress in the Jim Crow South?

Anne was curious about why murders, lynching and mysterious fires were taking place in and around her community. Every time she went to her mother for advice or discussion on race relations, she was immediately redirected to a subject less controversial. If Anne wanted to figure any of these issues out, she was going to have to do it on her own.

In society there is a lot of misconception of the term racism. According to the merriam-webster dictionary members of one race are intrinsically superior to members of others race which many people would agree with. What is racism? The normal person if asked will simply reply, not liking someone for their color of their skin. Racism from my attitude which is substantiated by historically events is a system of power .Thus is a system of power i.e. to control the world and its people. Employed by Europeans to subjugate and discriminate against other groups, in particular Africans/black people. Racism is a power which ran thru a systemic way to hinder and sabotage other groups. The system is so elaborate that it almost seems nonexistence

As a result, she lacked confidence in her education. She stated, “My early education did not partake of the abundant opportunities which the present day affords and which even our common schools now afford. I was never sent to any school; I was always sick.” Even though she did not attend a formal school it did not put her out of reach of a proper education (Peterson, 9).

Coming of age in Mississippi is an autobiography of the life of Anne Moody. She grew up poor and Black in the rural south and how that turned her into an activist for black rights. The book was divided into four parts, her childhood, high school years, college life, and adult life during the movement. Anne grew up in a family that was victimized; they suffered from poverty, hunger, and the difficulties of farm life, low wages, childhood labor, colorism conflicts, and a lack of a father figure. The blacks in the community she grew up in also suffered from lynching and Klan activity, segregation, low paying jobs, and lack of police protection. During her childhood she began to work for numerous White families as a housekeeper. She began to have a different point of view on a lot of things in life. Anne received fair treatment from majority of her employers which encouraged her to want better for herself. At the age of 15 she was disgusted with her community and the Whites and Blacks who lived there. She went to New Orleans and Baton Rouge for the summer. She became bored with Centerville and was eager to leave and start her adult life. She shortly after graduated and went on to Natchez College on a basketball scholarship and then transferred to Tugaloo College. She joined the NAACP and became involved with various activities with in it. Her involvement with the movement began here. She was involved in sit-ins, made speeches, participated in marches, was arrested, and even was

To start with, in the Moody’s early childhood life she lived on a plantation house with her family and other families were there they experienced a limit to what she can achieve because of the lack of jobs and the terrible quality of jobs the black community. Moody’s step-father, Raymond, and her mother had jobs as farmers. Moody said in the book, “Mrs. Claiborne told me how smart I was and how much I could do if I just had the chance. I knew if I got involved in farming, I’d just

Another force that shaped Moody’s thoughts on race was her interactions with the whites that she worked for within her hometown. This started her questioning of why there was such an emphasis on race. Anne’s job description consisted of cooking, cleaning, ironing, and maintaining houses for whites in her community. With each family Moody worked for, the anger within her grew and the prejudice toward her also grew. Moody expresses how much she desperately wanted to understand the racial inequality that was a part of her world. Some of the kind whites educated her, while others tried to engrain in her mind that she should not try to step out of her role as an African American. One of the rude white families that she worked for was the Burkes. Mrs. Burke, an active member in a local Citizens’ Council and a character that was prejudice towards blacks, had many encounters with Anne. Anne’s interactions with Mrs. Burke make her question the societal norms between whites and blacks. Mrs. Burke tells Anne how to behave and all Anne can do is act as if she understands and agrees with what Mrs. Burke says, but inside, all she can do is question why society is like this. For example, one interaction went like this: “When they had finished and gone to the living room as usual to watch TV, Mrs. Burke called me to eat…Mrs. Burke

In her time in the SNCC, Anne canvassed in the Delta to try and get blacks to register to vote. While canvassing, she faced discrimination from not only whites, but African Americans too. The blacks in the Delta turn Anne away because they have heard stories of what the whites will do if you claim to be involved in the SNCC. Through working with the SNCC, Anne Moody realized that by joining the movement, she was about to be a part of a big change.

prevalent in the south during the pre Civil Rights period. Ms. Moody learns how badly White

     The most drastic incident that happened to Anne was when she was working in Canton, Mississippi for a cause of voter registration. People involved in the movement are dying left and right, and this becomes very discouraging to her. She finds out that she is on the KKK black list and fears for her life. She finds out that her family is also afraid and they stop talking to her. She quits her job and moves back to Canton and goes back to her family. She sees how complacent her family is and this frustrates her. Her family treated her like a stranger, and when she graduated from Tougaloo, no one showed up for her graduation. In the end of the book, McKinley is murdered in front of nonviolent civil rights activists. Anne Moody wonders if things will ever work out.

The Cambridge Dictionaries Online (2011) defines racism as “the belief that people's qualities are influenced by their race and that the members of other races are not as good as the members of your own, or the resulting unfair treatment of members of other races.”

Merriam-Webster fully defines racism as “a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race”. In his article, Balkaran points out that racial discourse can be inferred to be aversive, academic, scientific, legalistic, bureaucratic, economic, cultural, linguistic, religion, mythical, or ideological. He states that racial discourse and expressions have been prevalent towards African-Americans. “Race matters exist in different places and at different times under widely varying conditions,” he writes. This pushes into the understanding of racism in the history of the United States.

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.

The fact that Jackie received knowledge about, poverty, privilege, besides social injustice she took on a position as a counselor, providing

Moody was the child of a colored family who worked for a white farmer. Her father decided to not be a part of the picture which left a family in a single mother’s hands. She attended segregated schools and was forced to start working since she was in the fourth grade in order to help support her family financially. Soon after, they moved closer to Centreville, Mississippi and her mother eventually married a man, whom Moody felt sexually harassed by. There were various different acts of violence and

Anne Moody was born in the 1940s which was the time after World War II. This was the period of the development of the U.S. However, the racism between Whites and Blacks still existed. As an African-American girl lived in that time, she had a life of poverty and misery. During her childhood, she had to face with many