Coming Of Age In Mississippi, Anne Moody Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Coming Of Age In Mississippi, Anne Moody - Essay Example During her college years she worked for the NAACP, CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) and SNCC (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee) which culminated in her involvement with the Woolworth’s Lunch counter in Jackson which is also in Mississippi. Moody’s â€Å"Coming of Age in the Mississippi† is divided into 4 parts – â€Å"Childhood†, â€Å"High School†, â€Å"College† and â€Å"The Movement†. This book remains a classic in its own right in the priceless literature of the Civil Rights Movement. It also tells us about the motivations that led the author to turn her attention towards militancy and how she moved to New York City which is where she presently resides. Working in the movement did not seem to satisfy Moody because she felt that nothing much was being accomplished by her working there. Through her writing she realized that even though they worked so hard in the movement nothing much seemed to happen and nothing much seemed to change. The people in the Movement made a few gains here and there but by far, the root cause remained the same always. In Moody’s own words, â€Å"the Movement was not in control of its destiny — nor did we have any means of controlling its destiny." Moody describes a bitter experience she had at the Woolworth’s Lunch counter in Jackson. She was one of the participants of a delegation of black children and in trying to integrate everyone she sat in the front counter reserved for the whites, instead of sitting at the counter at the back. Before she could know what was happening, she along with her other friends were slapped and threatened with hanging. The crowd of bystanders smeared their faces with sugar, mustard, ketchup, pies and everything else on the counter while shouting words like â€Å"Communist† and â€Å"nigger†. One of the students was hit brass knuckles across the jaw and another had the word â€Å"nigger† spray – painted on his white shirt. They were then escorted by 90