BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY : AFRICAN AMERICAN " ANNE MOODY " WAS A WRITER, CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST SHE PENNED THE AWARD WINNING AUTOBIOGRAPHY COMING OF AGE IN MISSISSIPPI : GOES INTO THE " HALL OF BLACK HEROES "

 BLACK   SOCIAL                                                                                            HISTORY                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Anne Moody Biography

Writer, Civil Rights Activist (1940–2015)

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QUICK FACTS

NAME

Anne Moody

OCCUPATION

Writer, Civil Rights Activist

BIRTH DATE

September 15, 1940

DEATH DATE

February 5, 2015

EDUCATION

Natchez Junior College, Tougaloo College

PLACE OF BIRTH

Centreville, Mississippi

PLACE OF DEATH

Gloster, Mississippi

AKA

Anne Moody

Essie Moody

FULL NAME

Essie Mae Moody

• SYNOPSIS
• BACKGROUND AND EDUCATION
• CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST
• WRITES AWARD-WINNING AUTOBIOGRAPHY
• PUBLISHES STORY COLLECTION

• CITE THIS PAGE

Anne Moody is a former Civil Rights activist who penned the award-winning autobiography 'Coming of Age in Mississippi.'

IN THESE GROUPS

• FAMOUS MOVEMENT
• FAMOUS VIRGOANS
• FAMOUS PEOPLE BORN IN CENTREVILLE
• FAMOUS PEOPLE BORN IN UNITED STATES

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QUOTES

“I realized that the universal fight for human rights, dignity, justice, equality and freedom is not and should not be just the fight of the American Negro or the Indians or the Chicanos. It's the fight of every ethnic and racial minority, every suppressed and exploited person, everyone of the millions who daily suffer one or another of the indignities of the powerless and voiceless masses.”

—Anne Moody

Synopsis

Born on September 15, 1940, in the Centreville area of Mississippi, Anne Moody became a college student who engaged in Civil Rights work for groups like the Congress of Racial Equality and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Her incisive 1968 autobiography, Coming of Age in Mississippi, became an award-winning work. She followed that up with the story collection Mr. Death in 1975.

Background and Education

Future writer Anne Moody was born Essie Mae Moody on September 15, 1940, near the town of Centreville in Mississippi's Wilkinson County. She was the eldest of several children. With her father leaving the family and her mother unable to make ends meet by herself, Moody started to earn income from work as early as the fourth grade.

She endured a tumultuous childhood, coming to fear the depths of hate as seen in the murder of Emmett Till and experiencing rampant prejudice in her own life, with racial tensions in her community rising and her cousin forced to flee the area. Though facing much emotional distress, Moody was a devoted and popular student and played on the basketball team while standing up to a harsh coach. She was eventually able to earn an athletic scholarship to the two-year Natchez Junior College and then earned an academic scholarship to Tougaloo College, graduating in 1964.

Civil Rights Activist

As a student, Moody became involved with the growing civil rights efforts, joining the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) as well as the NAACP and spearheading voter registration efforts, though her work affected her studies. She was a primary participant in a sit-in to desegregate the lunch counter of a local Woolworth's along with other demonstrations in Jackson, and later took part in the historic 1963 March on Washington.

Writes Award-Winning Autobiography

Upon her college graduation, Moody worked at Cornell University as its civil rights project coordinator until 1965. She later moved to New York City and, though distancing herself from the movement, she published her autobiography in 1968, Coming of Age in Mississippi, detailing her rural childhood, including very difficult times with her family, and subsequent activism. The book earned raves upon its publication, including accolades from The Nation, The Chicago Tribune and Senator Ted Kennedy in The New York Times Book Review. Coming of Age... also won awards from the National Library Association and the National Council of Christians and Jews.

Publishes Story Collection

Moody followed up her debut several years later with the fiction collection Mr. Death: Four Stories, released in 1975. She earned another award fromMademoiselle for the story "New Hopes for the Seventies." She has since maintained a quiet life, working with anti-poverty initiatives in New York. She is also said to have been penning another book, The Clay Gully.