(Originally Published 1968, Mass Market Paperback 424 pages)
Ms. Moody's memoir covers from her birth in 1940 and up to 1964. Published in 1968, the young lady does a very commendable job of describing her life living in Mississippi during Jim Crow. Her story is penned in a straight-forward manner with no flowery prose. The author's style fits very well with the harshness of being black in a state that is one of the major armpits of our country when it comes to human rights. There are moments of levity, but mostly it has a tone of anger, angst and youthful self-righteousness. Despite Ms. Moody being extremely smart, athletic, beautiful, driven and strong-willed, the idiotic handicap of being black made her achievements even more impressive. Without question, she was the exception and not the rule for black advancement. African-Americans under Jim Crow had very little access to a good education, jobs, civil rights and lived in constant fear of whites.
The memoir is broken up into four major sections: her childhood, high school, college, and participation in the Civil Rights movement. Reading about her childhood helps to understand who and why she evolved into a Civil Rights stalwart. Every day this head strong young lady put her life on the line by simply trying to be viewed as an equal. She was one of the three people who famously sat at a Woolworth's whites-only lunch counter and were assaulted by yahoos from the shallow end of the gene pool.
Much like today's movement for equal rights for gays, it always the impatient youth who force change in our society. Older people who have built a life for themselves fear they will lose what they've attained if they publicly support such movements. The young adults, just starting out in life, have little to risk in material matters, but their passion for justice puts them in harms way. Ms. Moody's actions came at great personal cost for not just her but also her family who pleaded for her to stop, friends and basically all blacks. She was a woman of immense courage who shows that one person can make a difference. It is a gripping read about a woman's indomitable spirit to help correct an immoral system.
The memoir is broken up into four major sections: her childhood, high school, college, and participation in the Civil Rights movement. Reading about her childhood helps to understand who and why she evolved into a Civil Rights stalwart. Every day this head strong young lady put her life on the line by simply trying to be viewed as an equal. She was one of the three people who famously sat at a Woolworth's whites-only lunch counter and were assaulted by yahoos from the shallow end of the gene pool.
Much like today's movement for equal rights for gays, it always the impatient youth who force change in our society. Older people who have built a life for themselves fear they will lose what they've attained if they publicly support such movements. The young adults, just starting out in life, have little to risk in material matters, but their passion for justice puts them in harms way. Ms. Moody's actions came at great personal cost for not just her but also her family who pleaded for her to stop, friends and basically all blacks. She was a woman of immense courage who shows that one person can make a difference. It is a gripping read about a woman's indomitable spirit to help correct an immoral system.
(Meyers - A few years ago, I started writing, under the pseudonym Franklin the Mouse, short reviews at Amazon's web site. This is my most recent review #361)
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