Coming of Age in Mississippi Free Audiobook Download

3 quotes from Coming of Age in Mississippi

• "I didn't know why I was there or how I got there, but I knew that I was there."
• "If you don’t love yourself, you can’t love anybody else."
• "I had never seen so many black people, and I wondered how many of them understood what was happening to them."

Author: Anne Moody

Anne Moody, born Essie Mae Moody on September 15, 1940, in Centreville, Mississippi, emerged from a background of poverty as the eldest of nine children in a family of African-American sharecroppers. Moody's educational journey began with a basketball scholarship to Natchez Junior College, followed by an academic scholarship to Tougaloo College, where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in 1964. It was during her time at Tougaloo that Moody became deeply involved in the civil rights movement, actively participating in organizations such as the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Notably, she was one of the courageous young activists who staged a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth's lunch counter in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1963, and she participated in the historic March on Washington. Her commitment to voter registration for African Americans in Canton, Mississippi, came with significant personal risk, including being targeted by the Ku Klux Klan. Following her civil rights work, Moody relocated to New York City, where she began writing her acclaimed autobiography, *Coming of Age in Mississippi*, published in 1968 and recognized with numerous national awards. In addition to her autobiography, she authored *Mr. Death: Four Stories* in 1975 and served as a counselor for the New York City Poverty Program, continuing her advocacy for marginalized communities.