Coming of Age in Mississippi. Anne Moodys memoir, Coming of Age in Mississippi, portrays her life experiences and the troubles she faced growing up in Mississippi before and during the African-American civil rights movement.

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Alex Johnson

Hist 202

Prof. Hesen

Coming of Age in Mississippi

The United States during the mid-twentieth century is often described as being a time of conformity and compliance. However, it also represents a time in which the seeds of rebellion were being planted within American society. As these seeds began to grow so too did the African-American civil rights movement in the United States. Even though African-Americans had been granted their freedom following the Civil War and even gained the right to vote, they were still treated as second class citizens, especially in the South. Anne Moody's memoir, "Coming of Age in Mississippi", portrays her life experiences and the troubles she faced growing up in Mississippi before and during the African-American civil rights movement.

Moody begins her memoir by reflecting on her rough childhood around the time that she was four years old. Anne lived in a two bedroom shack with her mother, father, and younger sister on a plantation owned by a white man known as Mr. Carter. Many other African-Americans also lived on this plantation and like Anne's mother and father, they too were sharecroppers. Sharecropping is defined as an