Famous people stories: 4th grade reading level

by Anne Moody

Unknown Binding

Published January 1, 1981

About the author

Anne Moody 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. Raised in Centreville, Mississippi, she was the oldest of eight children and began working for white families at a young age while excelling in school. She attended Natchez Junior College on a basketball scholarship before transferring to Tougaloo College, where she became deeply involved in civil rights activism.
As a student, Moody participated in protests, including the infamous Woolworth's lunch counter sit-in in Jackson, where she and fellow activists endured violent attacks from a hostile crowd. She worked for CORE during the Freedom Summer of 1964 and was arrested for her participation in demonstrations.
In 1968, she published Coming of Age in Mississippi, an acclaimed autobiography that vividly depicted the realities of racism and segregation in the South. The book received widespread recognition, including awards from the National Council of Christians and Jews and the National Library Association. She later wrote Mr. Death: Four Stories in 1975, a collection of short stories exploring themes of mortality.
Moody lived in New York for much of her life, working outside the literary spotlight and largely avoiding public appearances. She briefly lived in Berlin in the early 1970s and later returned to Mississippi in the 1990s. Though she continued writing, many of her later works remain unpublished. Her contributions to literature and civil rights activism remain an essential part of American history.