Anne Moody (born September 15 1940) is an African American author who has written about her experiences growing up poor and black in rural Mississippi, joining the Civil Rights Movement, and fighting racism against blacks in the United States beginning in the 1960s. Born Essie Mae Moody, she was the eldest of nine children of Fred and Elmira Moody. After her parents split up, she grew up with her mother in Centreville, Mississippi, while her father lived in nearby Woodville, Mississippi. At a young age she began working for whites in the area, cleaning their houses and helping their children with homework for only a few dollars a week. After graduating from a segregated, all-black high school, she attended Natchez Junior College (also all black) in 1961 under a basketball scholarship. Then she moved on to Tougaloo College on an academic scholarship to get full degree. At Tougaloo, she became involved with the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. After graduating she became a full-time worker in the movement, participating in a Woolworth's lunchcounter sit-in and protests in Jackson, Mississippi. During Freedom Summer, she worked for CORE in the volatile town of Canton, Mississippi. Her autobiography Coming of Age in Mississippi is acclaimed for its realistic portrayal of life for a young African-American before and during the Civil Rights movement of the 1960's.
Books
- Coming of Age in Mississippi (1969)
- Mr. Death: Four Stories (1975)
