Teaching Anne Moody *Coming of Age in Mississippi* Discussion/Aug 1997
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H-Women Teaching Anne Moody *Coming of Age in Mississippi* Discussion/Aug 1997 Page published by Kolt Ewing on Thursday, June 12, 2014 Teaching Anne Moody *Coming of Age in Mississippi* Discussion/Aug 1997 Query From Seth Wigderson [email protected] 02 Aug 1997 I am going to be using Anne Moody's Coming of Age In Mississippi in a US history survey course and I was wondering if anyone 1. could pass on experiences in using the book in class 2. can tell what happened to her after the book Thanks. X-POSTS FROM H-SOUTH AND RESPONSES FROM H-WOMEN Editor's Note: Thanks to Seth for putting together all these messages. Some have been posted already on H-Women, some have not. In any case, I found it fascinating to read them all at once. Good idea! Steve Reschly *** From: Seth Wigderson [email protected] 11 Aug 1997 A while ago I posted a query to H-Women and H-Teach asking for experience in using Anne Moody's *Coming of Age in Mississippi" as well as information on her later life. I got a wonderful series of replies from those lists, and as H-South which also picked up the query as well as some private posts. My students were very positive about the book which I used in conjunction with "Anchor of my Soul," a documentary about Portland Maine's black community's 175 year existence. I found Pam Pennock's writing suggestion (ask them to write briefly on two moving passages) very effective. I also was told that the black woman in photo 69 in Taylor Branch's Parting The Waters is Anne Moody at the Jackson Sit-In. As can be seen from the replies, there is some doubt as to Anne Moody's current life. I got the 1996 post from Allida Black off an earlier H-Women discussion. If Anne Moody wants a private life away from researchers, I think we should respect her wish. So let me collectively thank the following who took the time to contribute to the discussion. Here are the eighteen posts with many thanks to Allida Black, Ralph E. Luker, Joyce Miller, Jochen Wierich, Charles H. Martin, Ruth Alden Doan, Arvarh E. Strickland, Ralph E. Luker, Amanda Seligman, Pam Pennock, Krissi Jimroglou, Janet Davidson, Diana Lyn Laulainen-Schein, Janann Sherman, Charlotte Borst, Margaret Susan Thompson, Julia E. Liss and Lauren Coodley. Citation: Kolt Ewing. Teaching Anne Moody *Coming of Age in Mississippi* Discussion/Aug 1997. H-Women. 07-20-2015. https://networks.h-net.org/node/24029/pages/31383/teaching-anne-moody-coming-age-mississippi-discussionaug-1997 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 1 H-Women [FROM AN EARLIER DISCUSSION] <[email protected]> "Allida Black" 5-MAR-1996 Date: Wed, 6 Mar 1996 09:14:11 -0600 Anne Moody does not reply to queries. She has been burned so much that she does not give out her address or respond to requests from her publisher From: "Ralph E. Luker" <[email protected]> Seth: One of your questions was dealt with extensively on another list recently and I have forwarded a number of the responses to you. When I was teaching at Antioch College several years ago, I used _Coming of Age in Mississippi_ as a counterpoint to Taylor Branch's _Parting the Waters_ in a seminar on the civil rights movement. The two books offered the students male/female, urban/rural, elite/mass perspectives on the make-up of the Southern African American constituency of the movement. I also listed it as an optional reading for my course in 20th century America. Students liked the book very much, though they often did not pick up on questions about it that I found _quite_ intriguing: like why Ann alone from her family became involved in the movement (at most, the rest of the family reflects the resentful but relentlessly passive acceptance of things as they were); and that that she found a supportive environment for her work in the movement, not at the small African American controlled college she initially attended, but at Tougaloo, where black and white folk had a century of experience working together. The students and I agreed that _Coming of Age in Mississippi_ is a terrific book, but we thought so probably for different reasons. From: Joyce Ann Miller <[email protected]> I, too, have been trying to find out what happened to Anne Moody. Alas, an afternoon in the library failed to provide much info. According to the encyclopedia "Black Women in America," Moody left Mississippi in 1964 to become a civil right project coordinator at Cornell Univ. in Ithaca, NY. The only other information given is: "Unfortunately, Moody would later break with the movement; frustration with northern whites and doubts about the direction of Black liberation culminated in her departure." I believe she then completed a book of short stories. You might check with Harper and Row, her publisher, for more info. Hope this helps, From: Jochen Wierich <[email protected]> Citation: Kolt Ewing. Teaching Anne Moody *Coming of Age in Mississippi* Discussion/Aug 1997. H-Women. 07-20-2015. https://networks.h-net.org/node/24029/pages/31383/teaching-anne-moody-coming-age-mississippi-discussionaug-1997 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 2 H-Women I taught a class on the Sixties in the Spring of 1995 and remember coming across an article that claimed Ann Moody expatriated to France and still lives there. Sorry, but I cannot remember the newspaper or magazine source. From Charles H. Martin [email protected] According to friends at Ole Miss, Anne Moody only rarely returns to the state of Mississippi, where she nonetheless enjoys near icon status among African-Americans. She is reportedly an executive in a community service organization in the Washington, DC, area these days. There is an excellent photo of her, John Salter, and Joan Trunpauer at a 1963 Jackson sit-in in Darlene Hine, ed., BLACK WOMEN IN AMERICA. My students here on the border find her autobiography very compelling and appreciate the photo very much. If anyone has more specific information about her, I would also appreciate hearing it. From: Ruth Alden Doan <[email protected]> My apologies if I missed something: I was watching for an answer to the person who asked about the later life of Anne Moody, author of Coming of Age in Mississippi, and have not seen a response. If you got a private response, would you share it? If there was no response, may I ask again? Sorry if I just missed it. From: "Arvarh E. Strickland" <[email protected]> I saw Anne Moody and her son last May at the meeting of the Tougaloo College Alumni Association. The Office of Alumni Affairs at Tougaloo College can probably provide her address to those interested in contacting her. She seems to be doing well. I did not, however, inquire into her past. From: "Ralph E. Luker" <[email protected]> I can only report what I have heard by way of rumor. Anne Moody was one of the civil rights workers who left Mississippi in 1965 and thereafter in several waves. My understanding is that she settled in and continues to live in the New York City area, but that she continues also to shun the public spotlight. I am told that since the publication of _Coming of Age in Mississippi_ she has written some children's stories, though I have no information about their publication. Other subscribers to the H-South list may be able to confirm, correct or elaborate on this information. From Amanda Seligman [email protected] I've taught COMING OF AGE IN MISSISSIPPI, both as TA in a survey class and as an item in a course on youth in US history. I found that the students have an understandable tendency to be carried away with admiration for Ms. Moody's bravery, integrity, etc. I like to call attention to the other characters in the book, the ones who don't act with the same courage, etc., as a way of getting at the external forces and psychological obstacles that explain why it was not easy to get a civil rights movement going in the Citation: Kolt Ewing. Teaching Anne Moody *Coming of Age in Mississippi* Discussion/Aug 1997. H-Women. 07-20-2015. https://networks.h-net.org/node/24029/pages/31383/teaching-anne-moody-coming-age-mississippi-discussionaug-1997 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 3 H-Women US. My advisor told us that Moody went on to be a lawyer in NYC, but I've never seen this bit of information anywhere else. From: Pam Pennock <[email protected]> I have led successful discussions on the book _Coming of Age in Mississippi_by Anne Moody with groups of about 25 students. A week before the discussion, I asked each student to choose two or more passages of the book (in whatever length) that struck them in some way (surprised, saddened, appalled, moved, intrigued them) and to write a paragraph or so about each passage and his or her response to it. I tell them that this is an assignment that will be turned into me. On the day of the discussion, I have the students sit in a circle and simply go around and share the passages they chose and their responses to them.