Anne Moody

Introduction

Cover of Anne Moody's autobiography

Anne Moody didn’t plan on being a writer. She says that she was “first and foremost an activist in the civil rights movement in Mississippi.” She joined many civil rights groups as a direct result of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African-American boy who was brutally murdered in 1955. Moody, however, eventually grew frustrated with the movement’s lack of progress and began writing about the civil rights struggle in her autobiography, Coming of Age in Mississippi. Beautifully told from a child’s perspective, the book was highly praised and led to her writing the short story “New Hopes for the Seventies” as well as a short story collection titled Mr. Death. Moody now lives a very private life and does no interviews or appearances.

Essential Facts

1. Anne Moody participated in both the Woolworth luncheon sit-in and the march on Washington where Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his famous “I have a dream” speech.
2. Moody is reportedly at work on a new novel that will be called The Clay Gully. Her last book was published in 1975.
3. Moody attended Natchez Junior College on a basketball scholarship and later attended Tougaloo College on a full academic scholarship.
4. Despite, or perhaps because of, her persistent fear of being killed simply because of her skin color, Moody became deeply involved in civil rights activities in college.
5. Moody worked as a canvasser and church speaker for the NAACP and taught workshops on self-defense to demonstrators, all the while fearing for herself and her family’s safety.