From 500 Great Books by Women; review by Erica Bauermeister
Blunt, powerful, and angry, Coming of Age in Mississippi dares the reader to find anything poetic in the lives of black people living in rural Mississippi in the 1940s and 50s, "where they knew, as I knew, the price you pay daily for being black." Anne Moody begins with her childhood - houses papered with newspaper, children left alone because parents have to work, her own after-school housecleaning jobs that begin at the age of nine so she can help her family eat. Smart and athletic, she earns scholarships through college, but her thoughts are increasingly consumed by the racism that surrounds her. She is one of the original protestors at the Woolworth's counter in Jackson; after college she helps lead a voter registration drive in rural Canton, Mississippi, "where Negroes frequently turned up dead." She describes finding her own name on a Klan "wanted" list, seeing a boy beaten as FBI agents watch from across the street, hearing of murders - Emmet Till, Medgar Evars, John F. Kennedy, her own uncle. She lives her life knowing she can no longer return safely to her hometown and feeling estranged from family members who do not share her passionate commitment to fight racism. She is easy on no one, not even Martin Luther King, whose nonviolent stance she eventually questions. Anne Moody's book, written when she was twenty-eight, is both proof of her convictions and a forthright testament to the sacrifices, terror, and courage that made up the U.S. Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. -- For great reviews of books for girls, check out Let's Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14.


Review
?Simply one of the best, Anne Moody?s autobiography is an eloquent, moving testimonial to?courage.? ?Chicago Tribune

?A history of our time, seen from the bottom up, through the eyes of someone who decided for herself that things had to be changed?a timely reminder that we cannot now relax.? ?Senator Edward Kennedy, The New York Times Book Review

?Something is new here?rural southern black life begins to speak. It hits the page like a natural force, crude and undeniable and, against all principles of beauty, beautiful.? ?The Nation

?Engrossing, sensitive, beautiful?so candid, so honest, and so touching, as to make it virtually impossible to put down.? ?San Francisco Sun-Reporter


From the Publisher
Written without a trace of sentimentality or apology, this is an unforgettable personal story -- the truth as a remarkable young woman named Anne Moody lived it. To read her book is to know what it is to have grown up black in Mississippi in the forties an fifties -- and to have survived with pride and courage intact.

In this now classic autobiography, she details the sights, smells, and suffering of growing up in a racist society and candidily reveals the soul of a black girl who had the courage to challenge it. The result is a touchstone work: an accurate, authoritative portrait of black family life in the rural South and a moving account of a woman's indomitable heart.


From the Inside Flap
Written without a trace of sentimentality or apology, this is an unforgettable personal story -- the truth as a remarkable young woman named Anne Moody lived it. To read her book is to know what it is to have grown up black in Mississippi in the forties an fifties -- and to have survived with pride and courage intact.

In this now classic autobiography, she details the sights, smells, and suffering of growing up in a racist society and candidily reveals the soul of a black girl who had the courage to challenge it. The result is a touchstone work: an accurate, authoritative portrait of black family life in the rural South and a moving account of a woman's indomitable heart.

FROM THE PUBLISHER