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
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