Coming Of Age In Mississippi

NAACP holds its convention in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1963. Mama forbids Moody to go and asks her not to send leaflets in the mail; Mama is afraid of repercussions in Centreville. Moody goes to the convention anyway and gets signatures from the well-known Negroes who attend. She also participates in a sit-in at Woolworth’s lunch counter in Jackson with other white and black Tougaloo students. A white mob slaps Moody, throws her against a counter, and drags her 30 feet by her hair. Other students receive similar treatment.

Moody is arrested when she demonstrates at a post office. The white students are put in separate prison cells from the black students, even though they have been living and working together. Police also arrest 400 high school students. Because the jail is full, the police hold the high school students in a local park, where they do not receive food or beds. Medgar Evers, a NAACP leader, is shot, and Moody finds out later that her Uncle Buck was beaten up as a result of her involvement in the Movement. She enters a white church, is welcomed by the ushers, and then prays with white people for the first time in her life: “I stood there for a good five minutes before I was able to compose myself” (285).