Coming of Age in Mississippi

             Many events in Anne Moody's life led up to the final conclusion of the book. She begins with her childhood by describing the tiny houses her family had lived in, children left by themselves because parents have to work, and her housecleaning jobs after-school that she began at the age of nine to help her family eat. Throughout all of this hardship during her childhood she stays motivated and earns scholarships to put herself through college. Through all of this, her thoughts are continuously consumed with the racism and discrimination that surrounds her.
             She describes finding her own name on a Ku Klux Klan wanted list, seeing a boy beaten as FBI agents watch from across the street, and hearing of murders - Emmet Till, Medgar Evars, John F. Kennedy, as well as her own uncle. She lives her life knowing she can no longer return safely to her hometown and feels estranged from family members who do not share her passionate commitment to fight racism.
             At the conclusion of the book we are left with Anne, as well as many other activists for equal rights, who have left on a bus to go to Washington D.C. to testify at the COFO hearings. Their mission was to finally gain equal rights once and for all after all of the battling they had done over many years. However, on the bus Anne didn't seem as energized about the idea as the others who continually sang uplifting Negro songs. The images of all that had happened during her years as an activist were running through her mind. She wasn't sure how to answer to those who were asking her if things were actually going to get straightened out in Washington D.C. She only left us with the thought, "I wonder. I really wonder."
             There are many events in Anne's life that could lead her to wonder what will really happen as they left to testify in Washington D.C. It is possible that if some of the events in her life didn't happen it may have altered her end concl...

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Coming of Age in Mississippi. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 15:13, April 26, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/103286.html