Coming of Age in Mississippi - Essay Example

? Order 514390 Topic: Anne Moody, Coming of Age in Mississippi Martin Luther King is right in his approach to solve the issues of blacks; butAnne Moody’s approach is not wrong! Thesis Anne Moody’s personal suffering as a black are synonymous with the issues the African-American community as a whole is confronted with; the muffled drum of hard discrimination against Negros continues to disturb the symphony of orchestra of American social harmony. Her experience as a child: Anne Moody’s experiences of life at a young age were the impressions that she carried throughout her life. Recollections of the hard days of the past, proved to be life-altering events, and helped her to take tough but correct decisions. Anne’s life was devoid of the full-time love of her parents as they left for plantation work, early in the morning and returned late in the evening. They remained anxious about the safety and welfare of their children. In the absence of parental care and love, the children lived on day to day basis, worrying what calamity awaited them each day, as their caretaker was a rude individual. He often inflicted physical injuries on Anne particularly. Her father did love Anne but distress due to hard economic circumstances made him lose the temper and he punished her without rhyme or reason. She did not receive love to which a child was entitled to and craved for. The rounds of punishment by the caretaker bordered cruelty, and he indulged in it just for the heck of it. About the consequences of one such punishment Anne wrote, (2004, p.10) “I tried to sit down once. It was impossible. It was hurting so bad even standing was painful. An hour or so later, it was so knotty and swollen I looked as if I had been stung by a hive of bees.” Race relations: Anne’s writings graphically revealed the history of African-Americans of the 1950s and 60s and details about the harsh realities of the black children growing up. Going by the provisions of the Constitution, all the citizens were equal. But the whites were unwilling to change. The habitation of the plantation laborers was of sub-human standard, whereas the plantation owner lived in a palatial building. The Christian principles of love thy neighbor did not work. The differences in the living standards of the plantation owners and plantation laborers were described by Anne poignantly. She wrote, “Most evenings, after Negroes had come from the fields, washed and eaten, they would sit on their porches, to look up toward Mr. Carter’s house and talk. Sometimes as we sat on our porch, Mama told me stories about what was going on in that big house.”(p.5) Next to parental love at home, the place where one could expect the growth of personality of children and get some affection was the school environment. The teachers played a decisive role in influencing the mindset of children. Anne and black children like her, did not carry the luck in that area also. Their teacher was harsh, inclined to give severe punishments that the children preferred to spend the time hiding in the toilets. The teaching style also made the students disinterested in the lessons. Anne described one such incident of her teacher rebuking her, and his tone was like the villain in stunt movies. She wrote about him, “One day he (teacher) caught me. ‘Moody, gal! If you don’t stop lookin’ out that window, I’ll make you go out in that graveyard and sit on the biggest tombstone out there all the day.’ Nobody laughed because they were all as scared of him as I was.”(p.15)The whites took the earliest opportunity to punish the Negroes. About one such grave incident Moody wrote, “Next thing we heard in the Negro community was that they had caught and nearly beaten to death a boy who, they said, had made the call to the white operator. All the Negroes went around saying, “Yall know that boy didn’t do that….” ((p.139) Economic and educational options: Her childhood experiences shaped the bent of her mind like that of a trade-unionist. Fighting for her rights and that of the discriminated black race was the mission of her life. The broken home life of her parents added to her misery. Anne was just 4 when her father deserted the family. Mother fell for a soldier named Raymond had a baby and later she married him. She did her first job at the age of 9, at an old white lady’s house that later began to extract more work from her. She resented the exploitation when the lady made her clean the whole house. This small incident indicated her fighting tendencies. During her high school days, she had the good grasp of the race issue—the prejudice which the Negroes suffered. She wrote "I was 15 years old when I began to hate people... I hated all the whites who were responsible for the countless murders... But I also hated Negroes. I hated them for not standing up and doing something about the murders." (p. 129) In College she was almost a rebel and began boycott against the cafeteria food because it was unsanitary. She revolted with a rock-like stand and stated, "We don't eat until he, (President Buck), gets rid of Miss Harris, (the cook), and that leak is fixed" (p. 235) She was in thick of the movement against severe injustice meted out to the blacks on all counts. The grassroots realities were more horrible than what she had imagined or encountered thus far in her life. She narrated one such experience of the sit-in protest."The white students, (in the store), started chanting all kinds of anti-Negro slogans... The rest of the seats except the three we were occupying had been roped off to prevent others from sitting down. A couple of the boys took one end of the rope and made it into a hangman's noose. Several attempts were made to put it around our necks." (p. 265) Roadblocks faced by the movement (violence, fear, lack of cooperation, finances): How would one feel if given to understand of being on the terrorist’s hit-list? Seek police protection! What would be the position if no protection from the government agencies was forthcoming? Anne’s position was somewhat like thus. Some of her adult acquaintances were murdered by the Ku Klux Klan, and she was in the “Black List” of the Klan. The story of her Mississippi Freedom Summer gave details of the incident when she had to hide at night in high grass to avoid the Klan. The very slow progress of the Civil Rights Movement disappointed Anne. The black race had great stake in the movement, as it was a life and death situation for them, but the whites took this legislation as the necessary evil and were not much enthusiastic about it. She had her doubts if there would be a conclusive end to the struggle against racism. Was it fated to get satisfaction with a couple of election victories here and there and how long it would take for positive results to be seen at the grassroots level? Would the struggle against racism continue on an ongoing basis with no permanent solution? In the 1940s-1950s to be born as a black was a tragedy; to be part of the poor black family was a double tragedy. But Anne possessed the grit and heroism to convert her defeats into victories and thus a hero was born. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, they say! Anne belonged to the second category. Leaders launch a movement but the rank-and-file risk their lives to fight for the social change. The confrontation was against those who resisted the legal rights of the blacks in their day to day dealings. To live in a hostile atmosphere was a great challenge. The expected economic change was not forthcoming to the greatest disappointment of the blacks. The constitutional provisions and the rights assured, remained inactive when confronted with the color of the skin. Anne came to the grim conclusion that the races would never be equal and blacks would be at the disadvantageous position for all time to come, in the American society. In the concluding pages of her book she wrote, “I wonder….I wonder…..we shall overcome, we shall overcome. We shall overcome someday, I WONDER I really WONDER.”(p.424) Sources of inspiration (leaders, rallies, activism, signs of progress): She admired the leadership qualities of the leaders who fought for the emancipation of the black race, but her convictions were that the thought process of the individual who suffered (black) and the individual who inflicted suffering (white) must change, to get at the final, everlasting solution. Instead of adoring one big leader at the national level, it was better to have one hundred small leaders at the community level. Sloganeering might inspire temporarily, might create the hype, but to fight small/big injustices as and when they surfaced was more important. About her interaction with Martin Luther King she wrote, “….already thousands of people there, I sat on the grass and listened to the speakers, to discover we had dreamers instead of leaders leading us. Just about every one of them stood up there dreaming…” (p.335)Big demonstrations with numerical strength of the audience were important. But it was like the tempest which uprooted trees, inflicted damages. But what mattered was the will of the human being to fight individual injustices. A candle light would not be able to provide light to the entire Planet Earth. But it could give light to the best of its abilities, light thousands of other candles, without losing its original power to glow. Addressing the gathering in Washington, D.C. on August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King proclaimed,(1992, p.102) “But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free…. the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination ….the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity…. the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land.” Anne Moody was present in this speech and also in the Woolworth luncheon sit-in. What was the reason, even after the lapse of one hundred years of getting the legal rights, the black race was unable to turn the corner and failed to reach the at par situation with the white race? The reason was simple and straightforward. In the first flush of enthusiasm of getting emancipated from slavery, the Negroes thought that their fight was over; they should have, each and every Negro should have, each man, woman and child should have realized that the promised land of equality and prosperity was far off and worked hard objectively. Anne Moody and Martin Luther King: Of the two, Martin Luther King and Anne Moody, I would consider Moody had the correct measure of the issues and the solution to lift an ordinary Negro from the quicksand of racial injustice. They say, meet good with good and evil with justice. Moody knew that no ordinary efforts would be able to mend the barrier between the two races. The white men were not still inclined to budge from their stand that they alone were accountable for the destiny of the Nation, due to superior talents. Segregation was practiced in all important areas and majority of the whites were not prepared to accept that the destinies of the blacks and whites in America was common. How could the two walk together except they were agreed? The difference between the two black leaders was, Martin Luther King called for urgent remedial action, whereas Moody was engaged in such actions. Her sit-in demonstrations were one such important step which had a specific goal, a set target to achieve. Sweet words and oratorical skills would not transform the white race. Hard actions and initiatives will—that was the story of the race relations in USA since centuries and Moody was not willing to give the grace marks to the white race! Her joining many civil rights movements was the direct result of the brutal murder of Emmett Till, a fourteen year old African-American boy in 1955. The enthusiasm of the torchbearers of the movement was dying down and Moody was disappointed on that count. It was then that she started writing the book Coming of Age in Mississippi. Conclusion: The fight must go on without intermission and with no let up in efforts and complacency on the part of blacks, believed Anne Moody. Her experiences are hard lessons for an average Negro to be on the guard to secure the rights. Her hope was tempered with reason, as for the h ground realities. Nothing was easy; nothing would be ever easy for the blacks. The black had taken the plunge in the sea of democracy and there was no question of being afraid of the waves—was the message of Anne Moody. She explained many dimensions of the problem, the white supremacy on African American self image and but what pained her deeply was the attitude of the lighter skinned African Americans with the dark skinned African Americans. Works Cited King, Martin Luther, I Have a Dream: Writings and Speeches That Changed the World, Special 75th Anniversary Edition, Harper One, 1 edition, January 30, 1992. Moody, Anne, Coming of Age in Mississippi, Delta, February 3, 2004. Read More