Coming of Age in Mississippi: The Classic Autobiography of Growing Up Poor and Black in the Rural South

The unforgettable memoir of a woman at the front lines of the civil rights movement€"a harrowing account of black life in the rural South and a powerful affirmation of one person€s ability to affect change.
 
€œAnne Moody€s autobiography is an eloquent, moving testimonial to her courage.€€"Chicago Tribune
 
Born to a poor couple who were tenant farmers on a plantation in Mississippi, Anne Moody lived through some of the most dangerous days of the pre-civil rights era in the South. The week before she began high school came the news of Emmet Till€s lynching. Before then, she had €œknown the fear of hunger, hell, and the Devil. But now there was . . . the fear of being killed just because I was black.€ In that moment was born the passion for freedom and justice that would change her life.

A straight-A student who realized her dream of going to college when she won a basketball scholarship, she finally dared to join the NAACP in her junior year. Through the NAACP and later through CORE and SNCC, she experienced firsthand the demonstrations and sit-ins that were the mainstay of the civil rights movement€"and the arrests and jailings, the shotguns, fire hoses, police dogs, billy clubs, and deadly force that were used to destroy it.

A deeply personal story but also a portrait of a turning point in our nation€s destiny, this autobiography lets us see history in the making, through the eyes of one of the footsoldiers in the civil rights movement.

Praise for Coming of Age in Mississippi
 
€œA 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

€œSomething 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

€œEngrossing, sensitive, beautiful . . . so candid, so honest, and so touching, as to make it virtually impossible to put down.€€"San Francisco Sun-Reporter