Coming of age in mississippi - Book Report/Review Example

Though African American’s were technically freed from slavery during the civil war, in 1863, they were still not granted equality or many of their rights. It wasn’t until a group of activist started to demand the rights and equality of black American’s, in early 1950’s, that things began to really change for them. Anne Moody’s book, Coming of Age in Mississippi, is an autobiographical account of her personal struggle to overcome her familial situation during this time. By taking a look at where she came from, how her life paralleled the activist movement, and her educational accomplishments, one can begin to see the absurdity of prejudice, and the importance of education in overcoming most of life’s obstacles.

Anne Moody was born in arguably one of the most dismal places for a person of color during that time, Wilkerson County, Mississippi. The date was 1940 and her mother was Essie May Moody. While her father was still with the family they spent time working on plantations, however, when he left her mother, and Anne, had to start working as maids for various white families, just to make ends meet. Their town was marked my extreme poverty and racism. As a child Anne begins to see racism as absurd. In one part of the book she asks some of her white friends to remove their clothing so she can see their genitalia.

In her mind she wanted to find out what made the white person better, more likely to succeed, or luckier, than her. She figured since she had seen every other part of a white person, and could not find anything different it must have to do with something that she had not seen. This part of the book really makes the argument for how absurd prejudice really is. There is not notable difference between people of different colors; Anne even notes that many black people have white somewhere in their ancestry.

So prejudice, then, is something that is created in peoples minds and is spread through the acceptance of the prejudice by both parties. Anne also demonstrates in the book how her own family, especially her mother, Toosweet Davis, encourages Anne to conform to the norm. She does not want Anne to go on to get her education, or step out of the box, for fear of what might happen to her, and how the family might be viewed because of it. With this kind of dismal beginning and poor support system most would not have expected Anne to become much.

Not only would it prove to be a struggle internally, but she would have to face and fight many external obstacles on her way better her life. One obstacle that was seen in the book that would be unexpected to most, was the obstacle from people with the same skin color. This really came into light when Anne’s family encounters prejudice from another black family, Raymond’s family, especially his mother Mrs. Pearly, just because Anne’s family had darker skin. Anne made the comment, “They were Negroes and we were also Negroes.

I just didn’t see Negroes hating each other so much.” This happened often during that time, however, that lighter skinned black people would try to esteem to higher social circles, or viewed themselves as better, even though they still received the same treatment from the whites. This, however, begins Anne’