Blog #1

“Coming of Age in Mississippi” by Anne Moody and the supplemental readings have shown how much African Americans, especially in South, have suffered due to segregation and racism in the past. In “Coming of Age”, Anne shows us strong images concerning segregation, racism, violence, love, and family values. Anne faces segregation at a young age when she sees her white friends in a movie theatre. Not knowing it was wrong, Anne and her siblings went into the white section of the movie theatre to see them; however, she gets scolded by her mother and dragged out of the movie theatre. This incident makes her awareness towards the differences between whites and blacks begin. Racism is also very intense during this time; for example, Mrs. Burke and how she treats Anne and how she basically attacks her younger brother, Junior, who she blamed for stealing her coin purse when she misplaced it. Majority of the violence during this time was towards the African Americans who either disrespected white people or “over stepped” their boundaries like Emmett Till who said “Bye Baby,” to a white woman. Throughout the story, love is shown by how races mix during this time regardless of the racism going on like affairs happening with white men and their help. Also, it shows how some people are only happy when they are loved like Anne’s mother and Raymond’s relationship. Family means a big deal to Anne. Even at a young age, Anne tries to help her family survive by getting jobs and giving what little money she earned to help buy food for her mother and siblings. Chapter three begins the way it does to show the hardships her mother went through working just to make the little money she earned a week and to show how she met the white children who helped start Anne’s awareness towards the differences between whites and blacks. With the harsh attitudes and violence going on during this time, I could not imagine living during this time period. Just because someone’s skin color is different, did not mean they were lower than whites. I’m afraid if I would have lived during this time period, my family would have raised me to be racist towards African Americans and maybe even treat them as Mrs. Burke did or worse. If people like Anne Moore did not choice to stand up for what she thought was right, Mississippi would still be a dangerous place to live for African Americans and lynching would probably still be occurring. Also, schools would still be segregated and tensions between whites and African Americans would still be very high. Literature plays an important role in these questions because it shows how people like Anne Moore made a huge difference in history by standing up against society for her beliefs.