Question

There are many questions from Coming of Age in Mississippi. The following are some discussion questions (there are many more):

1. What were Anne Moody’s most significant early childhood experiences? What was her family life like? What tensions existed in the family? What sort of responsibilities did she have in her family? What was life like as a sharecropper?

2. Outline Anne Moody’s interactions with whites in her early life. How did she learn that African Americans and whites were different and what effect did this have on her?

3. What problems did Anne Moody’s family experience as they tried to advance? What seemed to stop them being successful? How did poverty affect their lives?

4. Outline the relationships between Anne Moody and the first whites she worked for? What sort of work did she do? What was her relationship like with Mrs. Burke and how and why did this deteriorate over time? What does this indicate to you?

5. Who was Emmett Till and why was he lynched? What was the reaction of Anne Moody and also the black community to his death? What does this tell you?

6. As Anne Moody grows up she becomes more critical of African Americans and their relationship to whites. Why? How did she act differently from other Blacks in rural Mississippi? What problems did this create in her family?

7. Anne Moody’s relationship with her mother changed over time. What were the causes of this change and what specific events caused problems?

8. In the book, Anne Moody spends some time in the cities of Baton Rouge and New Orleans. How did these places affect her? Were African Americans treated differently in those places? What differences did she experience in African American life?

9. Why was Samuel O’Quinn murdered and what did this do to Anne Moody?

10. What kind of high school student was Anne Moody? What motivated her to succeed? Why did she begin to play basketball? What problems did she endure as she grew older? How did she cope with these issues?

11. Why did Anne Moody want to go to college? What happened to her at Natchez? Why did she decide to transfer?

12. What fears did Anne Moody have about going to Tougaloo College? What friends did she make there and what experiences did she have that helped her growth?

13. How did Anne Moody get involved with the Tougaloo branch of the NAACP? How did this involvement influence her? What specific events was she involved in?

14. Describe Anne Moody’s work with the SNCC voter registration project. What made it hard for her and her friends to achieve success? Why were African Americans very reluctant to register? How did whites try to stop the work of SNCC? What dangers did she face?

15. Outline Anne Moody’s role in the Woolworth Sit-Ins. How was this planned and what happened? Why did this have a profound impact on her?

16. What was the reaction of Anne Moody to the death of Medgar Evers?

17. What was the reaction of Anne Moody to Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech? What does her trip up to Washington DC tell you?

18. Why was organizing in Canton so much more difficult than in Jackson? What specific problems did she endure? What was she so exhausted?

19. Why does the book end in the way it does? What does this tell you about the CRM? Does Anne Moody believe that it is possible to overcome racial prejudice and discrimination? What do you think?

Answer 1

1) Anne Moody’s most significant early childhood experiences was Jim Crow (legalized segregation) at an early age.she lived with her mother, Toosweet, and her father, Diddly, both sharecroppers, and her younger sister, Adline. Poverty was the main tension in the family. She was the eldest sibling in the family so after their parents got seperated Moody takes on more responsibility to help support the family.. Her family were sharecroppers means they were allowed to grow crops, vegetables etc on a borrowed land and as rent they must share whatever they are growing in that field. So it was very tough because there was no profit in it.

2) She notices her mother is nervous and deferential around light-skinned Florence and Miss Pearl, even accepting their authority to raise her baby. She knows "white folks ate different from us" and their food and facilities are better.She started believing that The lighter your skin is, the wealthier you're likely to be.

3)Poverty and racism always took a toll on MOODY'S family. Whenever they tried to advance racism and poverty dragged them down. Her mama had to work at some white family. Moody and her sibling never had a normal childhood like her white neighbour kids.

4)At nine years old, Moody begins her first job sweeping a porch, earning seventy-five cents a week and two gallons of milk.The nastiest and most blatantly racist, Mrs.Burke is the closest portrait of prejudice in the book. Mrs. Burke demonstrates just how senseless and destructive the whites’ prejudice is against black. Though Mrs. Burke ultimately gives Anne grudging respect, she still distrusts the majority of African Americans and remains ardently opposed to integration.

5)Emmett till was a 14year old african-american boy who was tortured and murderedby white mob because of allegedly accused of whisteling a white women. Moody asked alot of question about this death to her mother, her mother just said that an evil spirit took that boy. This incident was a wakening call for moody. This incident also proved that white people would go to any extent to prove their "WHITE SUPREMACY".

6)As Anne Moody grows up she becomes more critical of African Americans and their relationship to whites. She just was not ready to accept the discrimination of the race. She had a alot in her mind and was determined to fight back against this racism. Her mama was worried about her, as she knew Moody would invite danger by doing this.

9)Samuel O’Quinn was a successful businessman and father of 11 children in Centreville, Mississippi. He was murdered beacuse he was the activist in civil right movement.This muderd completely shooked moody.

10)Anne Moody was a brilliant student in high school. To fight againts the discrimination motivated her to succeed.sHE STARTED playing basketball by standing against up a harsh coach. She got 2yrs of scholarship at a college through this game.

8. In the book, Anne Moody spends some time in the cities of Baton Rouge and New Orleans. How did these places affect her? Were African Americans treated differently in those places? What differences did she experience in African American life?

A)Anne moody felt same situation in BATON ROUGE AND NEW ORLEANS. No justice for black people there.While in Baton Rouge, Moody learns some tough lessons when she is ripped off by a white family for two weeks' pay, and when she is betrayed by a co-worker, which resulted in her losing her job