Anne Moody
Anne Moody | |
---|---|
Born | Essie Mae Moody September 15, 1940 Mississippi, U.S. |
Died | February 5, 2015 Gloster, Mississippi, U.S. | (aged 74)
Education | Natchez Junior College; Tougaloo College |
Occupation | Author |
Known for | Civil rights activism |
Notable work | Coming of Age in Mississippi (1968) |
Anne Moody (September 15, 1940 – February 5, 2015) was an American author who wrote about her experiences growing up poor and black in rural
Life
Moody, born Essie Mae Moody on September 15, 1940, was the oldest of eight children.[2] After her parents split up when she was five or six years old,[1] she grew up with her mother, Elmira aka Toosweet, in Centreville, Mississippi, while her father, Diddly, lived with his new wife, Emma,[1] in nearby Woodville. At a young age Moody began working for white families in the area, cleaning their houses and helping their children with homework for only a few dollars a week, while earning perfect grades in school and helping at Mount Pleasant church.[1] After graduating with honors from a segregated, all-black high school, she attended Natchez Junior College (also all-black) in 1961[3] on a basketball scholarship.[1]
Moody then moved on to
In the 1960s, Moody went "underground," moving to New York where she lived quietly for decades. She stipulated that she would not be a part of any interviews during this time. It was in New York where Anne Moody wrote Coming of Age in Mississippi. During her quiet time she worked a number of non-writing jobs. Anne Moody wrote her second book, Mr. Death: Four Stories, in 1975. Mr. Death contains a series of short stories aimed at teaching young people about dying.
During
Death
On February 5, 2015, Moody died at her home in Gloster, Mississippi, at the age of 74,[9] under the care of her younger sister Adline Moody.[10] Moody suffered from dementia in her later years.[11]
Autobiography
Moody's autobiography,
Post-1968
In 1969, Coming of Age in Mississippi received the Brotherhood Award from the National Council of Christians and Jews, and the Best Book of the Year Award from the National Library Association.[14] In 1972, Moody worked as an artist-in-residence in Berlin. She went on to work at Cornell and in 1975, released a collection of short stories entitled Mr. Death: Four Stories.[15] One of the stories, New Hope for the Seventies, won the silver award from Mademoiselle magazine.
She and Austin Straus divorced in 1977. Moody declined to make public appearances or grant interviews,[16] with one exception: the above-mentioned interview with Debra Spencer, in 1985.[8] Moody was absent from the spotlight during and after the civil rights movement, partly because she (like many people[who?]) needed time to heal from the physical and psychological wounds received during those efforts.[8] She lived in New York City, worked as a counselor for the New York City Poverty Program, and had been working on a book, The Clay Gully, prior to her death.[14]
Books
- Coming of Age in Mississippi. New York: Dial Press. 1968. (Delta reprint, 2004, ISBN 978-0385337816). (non-fiction, autobiography)
- Mr. Death: Four Stories. New York: Harper & Row. 1975. ISBN 978-0060243111.
Further reading
- Wheeler, Leigh Ann (October 5, 2018). "'Coming of Age in Mississippi' still speaks to nation's racial discord, 50 years later". The Conversation.
References
- ^ a b c d e f g Moody, Anne (1968). Coming of Age in Mississippi. Dial Press. pp. 1–424.
- ^ "Anne Moody, Mississippi civil rights activist, dies at 74". NOLA.com. Archived from the original on November 18, 2015. Retrieved November 18, 2015.
- ^ "Anne Moody". Biography.com. Archived from the original on May 4, 2015. Retrieved April 20, 2015.
- ^ "The Leadership Lessons of Medgar Evers". We Shall Not Be Moved: The Jackson Woolworth's Sit-In and the Movement It Inspired. December 31, 2013. Archived from the original on May 11, 2016. Retrieved July 26, 2016.
- ^ Mitchell, Jerry (February 10, 2015). "Woolworth's sit-in activist Anne Moody, 74, dies". USA Today. Archived from the original on March 28, 2019. Retrieved August 24, 2017.
- ^ "Photo of Woolworth's lunch counter sit-in in Jackson, Mississippi, 28 May 1963, including Anne Moody". The Guardian. March 27, 2015. Archived from the original on December 11, 2016. Retrieved December 11, 2016.
- ^ a b "Anne Moody, Mississippi civil rights activist, dies at 74". NOLA.com. Associated Press. February 7, 2015. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 30, 2015.
- ^ a b c d Spencer, Debra (February 19, 1985). "Transcript (74 pp.) of interview with Anne Moody" (PDF). Department of Archives & History Building. Jackson, Mississippi. p. 51. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 2, 2015. AU 76 OHP 403.
- ^ a b Langer, Emily (February 20, 2015). "Anne Moody: Civil rights activist who wrote about the hardship and violence she faced growing up in the Jim Crow South (obituary)". The Independent. Archived from the original on September 25, 2015. Retrieved August 24, 2017.
- ^ Mitchell, Jerry (February 7, 2015). "Anne Moody, author of 'Coming of Age in Mississippi', has died". The Clarion-Ledger. Archived from the original on June 4, 2021. Retrieved February 7, 2015.
- ^ Fox, Margalit (February 17, 2015). "Anne Moody, Author of 'Coming of Age in Mississippi,' Dies at 74". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 19, 2016. Retrieved March 1, 2017.
- ^ "Coming Of Age in Mississippi; An Autobiography. By Anne Moody. 348 pp. New York: The Dial Press. $5.95". timesmachine.nytimes.com. Retrieved April 5, 2022.
- S2CID 234874033.
- ^ a b "Anne Moody". University of Minnesota. Archived from the original on May 7, 2014. Retrieved May 6, 2014.
- ISBN 978-0060243111.
- ^ "Anne Moody: A Biography". mswritersandmusicians.com. Archived from the original on November 21, 2011. Retrieved November 21, 2011.
External links
- Gwin, Minrose (March 11, 2008). "Mourning Medgar: Justice, Aesthetics, and the Local". Southern Spaces.