Synopses & Reviews
Born to a poor couple who were tenant farmers on a plantation in Mississippi, Anne Moody lived through some of the most dangerous days of the pre-civil rights era in the South. The week before she began high school came the news of Emmet Till's lynching. Before then, she had "known the fear of hunger, hell, and the Devil. But now there was…the fear of being killed just because I was black." In that moment was born the passion for freedom and justice that would change her life.
An all-A student whose dream of going to college is realized when she wins a basketball scholarship, she finally dares to join the NAACP in her junior year. Through the NAACP and later through CORE and SNCC she has first-hand experience of the demonstrations and sit-ins that were the mainstay of the civil rights movement, and the arrests and jailings, the shotguns, fire hoses, police dogs, billy clubs and deadly force that were used to destroy it.
A deeply personal story but also a portrait of a turning point in our nation's destiny, this autobiography lets us see history in the making, through the eyes of one of the footsoldiers in the civil rights movement.
Review
"Simply one of the best, Anne Moody's autobiography is an eloquent, moving testimonial to . . . Courage." ---Chicago Tribune
Review
"This memoir poses significant challenges for the narrator. She must capture the essence of the author from an unschooled 4-year-old to a polished adult writer. Lisa Reneé Pitts carries it off well.…This is a powerful book rendered all the more powerful by an intimate reading that makes the author and her words come alive." ---AudioFile
Synopsis
Amy Moody shares her experiences growing up in the rural South in the 1940s and 50s, and explains how she became involved in the civil rights movement.
About the Author
Anne Moody has written about her experiences growing up black in rural Mississippi, joining the Civil Rights movement, and fighting racism in the United States. In addition to her autobiography, Coming of Age in Mississippi, she is the author of Mr. Death: Four Stories. Lisa Renee Pitts is an award-winning actress in theater, television, and film, as well as an accomplished audiobook narrator. She has been seen Off-Broadway, in Europe, and in regional theaters across the United States, performing leading roles in such prominent plays as A Raisin in the Sun, Doubt, Waiting forLefty, Valley Song, and Our Town. Her television appearances include The Shield and Law and Order, and she played the recurring role of Allison Sawyer on the hit family drama Lincoln Heights for the ABC Family Channel. Lisa's audiobook titlesinclude biographies, fiction, nonfiction and children's novels, including Pushkin and the Queen of Spades by Alice Randall, for which she won an AudioFile Earphones Award for excellence in narration. Other notable titles are Left to Tell by Immaculee Ilibagiza, Better Than I Know Myself by Virginia DeBerry and Donna Grant, and My Name Is Not Angelica by Scott O'Dell. Lisa is a graduate of Rutgers University, where she received her B.F.A. in Theater Arts. She lives in Burbank, California.