{{Short description|American civil rights activist and writer (1940–2015)}} {{use mdy dates|date=March 2023}} {{Infobox person | name = Anne Moody | image = Anne Moody.jpg | alt = | caption = Moody in the 1970s | birth_name = Essie Mae Moody | birth_date = {{birth date|1940|09|15}} | birth_place = Mississippi, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|2015|02|05|1940|09|15}} | death_place = Gloster, Mississippi, U.S. | nationality = | other_names = | occupation = Author | education = Natchez Junior College; Tougaloo College | alma_mater = | parents = | years_active = | known_for = Civil rights activism | notable_works = ''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 Mississippi, and her involvement in the Civil Rights Movement through the NAACP, CORE and SNCC. Moody began fighting racism and segregation as a young girl growing up in Centreville, Mississippi.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title = Coming of Age in Mississippi|url = https://archive.org/details/comingofageinmis00mood|url-access = registration|last = Moody|first = Anne|publisher = Dial Press|year = 1968|pages = [https://archive.org/details/comingofageinmis00mood/page/n12 1]–424}}</ref>
==Life== Moody, born '''Essie Mae Moody''' on September 15, 1940, was the oldest of eight children.<ref>{{Cite web|title = Anne Moody, Mississippi civil rights activist, dies at 74|url = http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2015/02/anne_moody_mississippi_civil_r.html|website = NOLA.com|access-date = November 18, 2015|archive-date = November 18, 2015|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20151118194215/http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2015/02/anne_moody_mississippi_civil_r.html|url-status = live}}</ref> After her parents split up when she was five or six years old,<ref name=":0" /> she grew up with her mother, Elmira aka Toosweet, in Centreville, Mississippi, while her father, Diddly, lived with his new wife, Emma,<ref name=":0" /> 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.<ref name=":0" /> After graduating with honors from a segregated, all-black high school, she attended Natchez Junior College (also all-black) in 1961<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.biography.com/people/anne-moody-37999|title=Anne Moody|website=Biography.com|access-date=April 20, 2015|archive-date=May 4, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150504070010/http://www.biography.com/people/anne-moody-37999|url-status=live}}</ref> on a basketball scholarship.<ref name=":0" />
Moody then moved on to Tougaloo College on an academic scholarship to earn a bachelor's degree. She became involved with the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). After graduation, Moody became a full-time worker in the civil rights movement, participating in a variety of different protests such as marches and sit-ins. Moody participated in a sit-in at a Woolworth's lunch counter in Jackson, when a mob attacked her, fellow student Joan Trumpauer, and Tougaloo professor John Salter, Jr. (later known as John Hunter Gray).<ref>{{cite web|website=We Shall Not Be Moved: The Jackson Woolworth's Sit-In and the Movement It Inspired|title=The Leadership Lessons of Medgar Evers|date=December 31, 2013|url=http://blog.notbemoved.com/post/71716604476/the-leadership-lessons-of-medgar-evers|access-date=July 26, 2016|archive-date=May 11, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160511214532/http://blog.notbemoved.com/post/71716604476/the-leadership-lessons-of-medgar-evers|url-status=live}}</ref> The mob continuously poured flour, salt, sugar, and mustard on them,<ref>{{cite news|author=Mitchell, Jerry|url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/02/10/obit-civil-rights-anne-moody/23202357/|title=Woolworth's sit-in activist Anne Moody, 74, dies|newspaper=USA Today|date=February 10, 2015|access-date=August 24, 2017|archive-date=March 28, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190328153315/https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/02/10/obit-civil-rights-anne-moody/23202357/|url-status=live}}</ref> as depicted in a ''Jackson Daily News'' photograph.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/mar/27/hunter-gray-1963-jackson-mississippi-sit-in|title=Photo of Woolworth's lunch counter sit-in in Jackson, Mississippi, 28 May 1963, including Anne Moody|newspaper=The Guardian|date=March 27, 2015|access-date=11 December 2016|archive-date=11 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161211153250/https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/mar/27/hunter-gray-1963-jackson-mississippi-sit-in|url-status=live}}</ref> Two weeks after the sit-in, Mississippi NAACP leader Medgar Evers was assassinated outside his family home in Jackson.<ref name=NOLA>{{cite web|agency=Associated Press|url=http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2015/02/anne_moody_mississippi_civil_r.html|title=Anne Moody, Mississippi civil rights activist, dies at 74|website=NOLA.com|date=February 7, 2015|access-date=March 30, 2015|archive-date=April 2, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402133924/http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2015/02/anne_moody_mississippi_civil_r.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Anne Moody was arrested in Jackson, Mississippi for attempting to protest inside of a post office with 13 others, including Joan Trumpauer, Doris Erskine, Jeanette King, and Lois Chaffee.<ref name=":0" />
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 Freedom Summer (1964), Moody worked for CORE in the town of Canton, Mississippi. In 1967, she married Austin Strauss, a Jewish man who was an NYU graduate student. In 1971, she gave birth to her son Sasha Strauss.<ref name=":1" /> In 1972, her family moved to Berlin after receiving a full-time scholarship, and they remained there until 1974 when they returned to America. Upon her return, she wrote a sequel to her autobiography, entitled ''Farewell to Too Sweet'', which covered her life from 1974 to 1984, and in a 1985 interview with Debra Spencer she spoke of writing other books of memoirs,<ref name=":1">{{cite web|author=Spencer, Debra |url=http://mdah.state.ms.us/arrec/digital_archives/vault/projects/OHtranscripts/AU076_096117.pdf |title=Transcript (74 pp.) of interview with Anne Moody |page=51 |website=Department of Archives & History Building |location=Jackson, Mississippi |date=February 19, 1985 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402144603/http://mdah.state.ms.us/arrec/digital_archives/vault/projects/OHtranscripts/AU076_096117.pdf |archive-date=April 2, 2015 }} AU 76 OHP 403.</ref> all of which remain unpublished. Moody was also involved in the anti-nuclear movement. She resettled in Mississippi in the early 1990s,<ref name=Langer/> though never felt at ease there, according to her sister Adline Moody.<ref name=NOLA />
==Death== On February 5, 2015, Moody died at her home in Gloster, Mississippi, at the age of 74,<ref name=Langer>{{cite news |author=Langer, Emily |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/anne-moody-civil-rights-activist-who-wrote-about-the-hardship-and-violence-she-faced-growing-up-in-the-jim-crow-south-10057843.html |title=Anne Moody: Civil rights activist who wrote about the hardship and violence she faced growing up in the Jim Crow South (obituary) |newspaper=The Independent |date=February 20, 2015 |access-date=August 24, 2017 |archive-date=September 25, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150925130824/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/anne-moody-civil-rights-activist-who-wrote-about-the-hardship-and-violence-she-faced-growing-up-in-the-jim-crow-south-10057843.html |url-status=live }}</ref> under the care of her younger sister Adline Moody.<ref name=JerryMitchell>{{cite news|author=Mitchell, Jerry|url=http://www.clarionledger.com/story/journeytojustice/2015/02/06/anne-moody-has-died/23016675|title=Anne Moody, author of 'Coming of Age in Mississippi', has died|newspaper=The Clarion-Ledger|date=February 7, 2015|access-date=February 7, 2015|archive-date=June 4, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210604020003/https://www.clarionledger.com/story/journeytojustice/2015/02/06/anne-moody-has-died/23016675/|url-status=live}}</ref> Moody suffered from dementia in her later years.<ref>{{cite news |author=Fox, Margalit |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/18/books/anne-moody-author-of-coming-of-age-in-mississippi-dies-at-74.html?_r=0 |title=Anne Moody, Author of 'Coming of Age in Mississippi,' Dies at 74 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=February 17, 2015 |access-date=March 1, 2017 |archive-date=October 19, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161019202534/http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/18/books/anne-moody-author-of-coming-of-age-in-mississippi-dies-at-74.html?_r=0 |url-status=live }}</ref>
==Autobiography== Moody's autobiography, ''Coming of Age in Mississippi'' (1968), was acclaimed by Senator Edward Kennedy for its "powerful and moving" portrayal of life<ref>{{Cite web |title=Coming Of Age in Mississippi; An Autobiography. By Anne Moody. 348 pp. New York: The Dial Press. $5.95. |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1969/01/05/91249079.html?pageNumber=107 |access-date=2022-04-05 |website=timesmachine.nytimes.com |language=en}}</ref> for a young African American before and during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Her perspective on life in rural Mississippi reveals the small and large violent acts encountered regularly by numerous African American southerners, especially women.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kelling |first=Meredith |date=2021-04-16 |title=Bodies of revolt: consuming and serving in Anne Moody's Coming of Age in Mississippi |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15528014.2021.1890893 |journal=Food, Culture & Society |volume=25 |issue=3 |language=en |pages=414–429 |doi=10.1080/15528014.2021.1890893 |s2cid=234874033 |issn=1552-8014|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Moody grew up in a household where her mother would suppress any idea of questioning the way things were or the concept of segregation.<ref name=":0" />
==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.<ref name=UMN>{{cite web|title=Anne Moody|url=http://voices.cla.umn.edu/artistpages/moody_anne.php|publisher=University of Minnesota|access-date=May 6, 2014|archive-date=May 7, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140507012739/http://voices.cla.umn.edu/artistpages/moody_anne.php|url-status=live}}</ref> 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''.<ref>{{cite book|title= Mr. Death: Four Stories|location= New York|publisher= Harper & Row|date= 1975|isbn= 978-0060243111|url-access= registration|url= https://archive.org/details/mrdeathfourstori0000mood}}</ref> 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,<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.mswritersandmusicians.com/writers/anne-moody.html|title= Anne Moody: A Biography|website= mswritersandmusicians.com|access-date= November 21, 2011|archive-date= November 21, 2011|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20111121050835/http://www.mswritersandmusicians.com/writers/anne-moody.html|url-status= live}}</ref> with one exception: the above-mentioned interview with Debra Spencer, in 1985.<ref name=":1" /> Moody was absent from the spotlight during and after the civil rights movement, partly because she needed time to heal from the physical and psychological wounds received during those efforts.<ref name=":1" /> 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.<ref name=UMN />
==Books== *{{cite book|title=Coming of Age in Mississippi|url=https://archive.org/details/comingofageinmis00mood|url-access=registration|location=New York|publisher= Dial Press|date= 1968}} (Delta reprint, 2004, {{ISBN|978-0385337816}}). (non-fiction, autobiography) *{{cite book|title= Mr. Death: Four Stories|location= New York|publisher= Harper & Row|date= 1975|isbn= 978-0060243111|url-access= registration|url= https://archive.org/details/mrdeathfourstori0000mood}}
==Further reading== * {{cite news |title='Coming of Age in Mississippi' still speaks to nation's racial discord, 50 years later |newspaper=The Conversation |date=October 5, 2018 |url=http://theconversation.com/coming-of-age-in-mississippi-still-speaks-to-nations-racial-discord-50-years-later-95584 |first=Leigh Ann |last=Wheeler}}
== References == {{Reflist|30em}}
==External links== * {{cite web|author=Gwin, Minrose|url=http://southernspaces.org/2008/mourning-medgar-justice-aesthetics-and-local |title=Mourning Medgar: Justice, Aesthetics, and the Local|date= March 11, 2008|website=Southern Spaces}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Moody, Anne}} Category:1940 births Category:2015 deaths Category:20th-century African-American people Category:20th-century African-American women Category:21st-century African-American people Category:21st-century African-American women Category:Activists for African-American civil rights Category:African-American women writers Category:African-American writers Category:Tougaloo College alumni Category:Writers from Mississippi