Civil Rights movement veteran Anne Moody died last week at 74. She was the author of one of the best autobiographies in American History, Coming of Age in Mississippi (1968). I read that book as a college junior, and remember it being utterly un-putdownable. It was one of those books in college that I read straight through without stopping not because of a syllabus deadline, but because it was brilliant and moving. It was the first feminist book about the Civil Rights movement I had read.
Anne Moody invented intersectional analysis in 1968–scholars took years to catch on and catch up.
Historiann 
I’m putting together a syllabus for my Working Class lit class next Fall — would this work for that, do you think?
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Yes, absolutely. She’s born into a sharecropping family but manages to make it to college & from there into her life as a Civil Rights activist. Some of your students may identify with her worries and anxieties as she moves into a more bourgeois environment.
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Excellent! I’m putting it in. Thanks!
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I also couldn’t put it down when I first read the book in college. I have since assigned it many times. Such a rich and wonderful book!
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RIP, Anne Moody. Read her work for a class and read it all in one sitting. Assigned it many times in my teaching career. Still speaks to my students.
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The only book in my U.S. Women’s history course I never change out. It is always powerful, always perfect.
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Sad to read of her death (learned it first here). I have loved assigning Coming of Age for many years. Most students find themselves drawn into the book and therefore read it and are ready to discuss the many themes and questions it raises.
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I had put Anne Moody’s fine book back on my women’s history syllabus for this semester after a hiatus of a few years–sometimes I assign it to my U.S. survey class. As much as I look forward to sharing it with students and listening to their reactions, there will be a certain sadness to the discussion this time around.
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