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Isaac Parenteau
Nov 12th 2011
Race in America
Coming of Age in Mississippi: Power and Intimidation
The early and mid-part of the twentieth century in the south was a time of great conflict. Slavery
has been abolished for a while now and yet African Americans were still treated as slaves and looked
down upon by Caucasians. They did almost everything they could to make sure African Americans “knew
their place” in society. Anne Moody authored the book Coming of Age in Mississippi, which chronicles
her life growing up in a racially segregated south and the life and hardship she endured. There are three
great examples, which Anne experiences, where she encounters whites who exercised power and
intimidation over her and the African Americans community.
Anne’s first experience with power and intimidation happened when she was a young girl. She
knew of events and intimidations that have occurred earlier, but she was not impacted directly. Anne’s
was poor when she was growing up, so she would work for white people to earn money to make ends
meet. On August 15th 1955 an African American boy, by the name of Emmett Till, was murdered for
allegedly flirting with a white woman. That evening when Anne went to work for Ms. Burke, her current
white employer, Ms. Burke confronted her about it. Ms. Burke tells Anne that a Negro boy from
Mississippi would not do what Emmett did, and that Negro’s from the north have no respect for
anything. “He just came to Mississippi and put a whole lot of notions in the boys’ heads here and stirred
up a lot of trouble” (132).
For the first time in her life Ms. Burke made Anne feel like rotten garbage. When Ms. Burke
talked about Emmett Till there was something in her voice that instilled fear and sent chills all over
Anne. “Before Emmett Till’s murder, I had known the fear of hunger, hell, and the Devil. But now there
was a new fear known to me—the fear of being killed just because I was black” (132). For the first time
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in her life Anne felt a new kind of fear, a fear that was felt throughout the black community and her
family. Earlier that day Anne’s mom told her not to discuss it and was angry when she brought up the
subject (130).
Whites would use power and intimidation to prevent African Americans from joining groups that
would help them stand against their oppressors. A civil rights group called National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was recruiting individuals from all over to help with the civil
rights of African Americans. A local resident of Centreville, Samuel O’Quinn, returned from a long stay
up north. Upon his return he was murdered, shot in the back. It was assumed that he joined the NAACP
during his stay (202-203). This type of murder was common in the south during this time. It was
intended to strike fear into the black community and prevent them from organizing to try to fight for
their rights. Whites knew that if the blacks rose up they would be many changes, changes that they did
not want. These murderous acts infuriated Anne, “I hated myself and every Negro in Centreville for not
putting a stop to the killings or at least putting up a fight in attempt to stop them” (203). She had an
urge to kill every white person she met on the main street in Centerville (203). Again, the white
community in the south wanted to make sure the African Americans knew their place in the south and
would do anything, even murder, to make sure nothing changed.
If killing single individuals was not enough to deter African Americans, whites would do more
terrifying things to intimidate African Americans into submission. During Anne’s college years, she spent
time in Canton, Mississippi, trying to get African Americans to register to vote. The white populous did
not like this at all, because if the African Americans were allowed to vote, they could vote for or against
laws that affected them. On Anne’s 23rd birthday, she heard on the news that a church in Birmingham,
Alabama, was bombed killing four girls attending Sunday school (346). This struck so much hatred in
Anne that she stormed out of the house and denounced God for letting this terrible act happen. “As long
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as I live, I’ll never be beaten by a white man again. Not like in Woolworth’s. Not anymore. That’s out.
You know something else God? Nonviolence is out… And if I find out you are white, then I’m through
with you. And if I find out you are black, I’ll try my best to kill you when I get to heaven” (347). The day
after the bombing, the African American community was scared to walk the street. When they passed
the office, which Anne worked at, they would turn their heads. Every time Anne would walk into town
the African American community would look at her and she would think they were saying “Get out of
here. You’ll get us killed” (349). After the bombing the number of African Americans that were coming
to Anne’s office to register to vote dropped off dramatically and almost no one came to register. This is
exactly what the whites wanted, to strike so much fear into the African American community that they
will not pursue anything that would benefit them and to turn their backs on those who want to help
them in fear that they would be targeted for elimination next.
Living in a community where one is the minority is hard enough, living in a community where
everyone hated the minority, makes it even worse. In the mid twentieth century African Americans
faced great adversity in the south, from humiliation to beatings and even murder. The white community
knew that they would have to resort hurtful tactics to keep the African American community “in-line”
and “know their place” in society. Their use of fear and intimidation insured that the African American
would comply to their will and it impacted Anne, her family and her community in a very traumatic way.