Author: Anne Moody Publication Date: 1968

Audience Age/Grade: Young Adult Genre: Strong Female Character

Curriculum Connections: Civil Rights Movement, Racism, Determination, 1960s History and Survival

The story introduces the reader to the character of Anne Moody, also known as Essie, her family, and a source of several famous characters such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Medgar Evers. She grew up in a town in Centreville, Mississippi where she developed an intense hatred of “White America” and blacks. She hated whites because they kept the black man down and she hated her own race because they never stood up for themselves. During her early childhood, she barely met the basic needs of food and shelter but it was her discovery of racism after the murder of Emmett Till that caused her to become aware of her need to survive for her family. During her life, she experiences three major events that made her into the remarkable woman she became and each of these would contribute to

the already expanding realization by the black community that there was a need for a Civil Rights Movement. The first was the murder of Emmett Till, her cousin who was a visitor from Chicago, Illinois. He made a pass at a white woman in a general store and was unaware of the inappropriateness of this action in a southern state in 1940s. He was later caught by two white men, beaten and left for dead in a ditch. Everyone knew that the white men had committed the crime but no one would dare to speak up for fear that they would be next. This caused Anne to realize that black people had to make a severe change in their personalities or they would continue to live under a blanket of fear forever. The second major event in her life was the experiences she had at Tougaloo College when she helped to form a chapter of the NAACP, SNNC and CORE. Through her activities, more blacks registered to vote in the 1960s and she was very active in the marches with Medgar Evers and Martin Luther King, Jr. The murder of Medgar Evers caused her to help hold “illegal” candlelight prayer rallies during which time she was arrested along with Dr. King and spent numerous times in jail. The third experience that shaped her life was her associations with these two great men. Medgar Evers taught her how to promote equality for all races and sexes and he helped her to achieve a level of commitment that she would never let drop again. Throughout all of her efforts, Anne continued to question if her contributions would ever help and make the black communities overcome and made her realize that her contributions did help but only if she could help the community solve the problem, not the individual. On her twenty-third birthday, Anne quest

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