Coming_of_Age_in_Mississippi

In Coming Of Age In Mississippi, Anne Moody explains many experiences she goes through. For example, in short, in her college years while attending Tougaloo College, in Jackson, Mississippi, she was involved with an organization NAACP. Through the organization, a small group, were sent to Jackson state fair to act as spoke people. Most of the Tougaloo students watched live as the group were being interviewed, and soon after, arrested. Soon after the bail of the group, police drove the group back to school, where the two cars were heavily surrounded from inch to inch by the angered Negro students from the school. The cops were frightened by the mob, as everyone congratulated the group by their heroic and inspiring act. The crowd began singing and continued singing freedom songs as they moved to the football field, where by the end of the rally, they were raged and ready to destruct Jackson. A few weeks after I got involved with the Tougaloo chapter of the NAACP, they organized a demonstration at the state fair in Jackson. Just before it was to come off, Medgar Evers came to campus and gave a big hearty speech about how “Jackson was gonna move.” Tougaloo sent out four picketers to the fair, and one of them was Dave Jones. Because he was chosen to be the spokesman for the group, he was the first to be interviewed on TV. That evening when the demonstration was televised on all the news programs, it seemed as though every girl was down in the lounge in front of the set. They were all shooting of about how they would take part on the next demonstration. The girl Dave was now seeing was running all around talking about how good he looked. Dave and the other demonstrators had been arrested and were to be bailed out at eight that night. By eight-thirty a lot of us were sitting outside on the dormitory steps awaiting their arrival, and they still hadn’t shown up. One of the girls had just gone inside to call the NAACP headquarters in Jackson, when suddenly two police cars came speeding through the campus. Students came running from every building. Within minutes the police cars were completely surrounded, blocked from every direction. There were two cops in the front seat of each car. They looked frightened to death of us. When the students got out of the cars, they were hugged, kissed, and congratulated for well over an hour. All during this time the cops remained in their seats behind locked doors. Finally someone started singing “We Shall Overcome”, and everyone joined in. when we finished, someone suggested we go to the football field singing all kinds of freedom songs, giving testimonies as to what we were going to do, and praying and carrying on something terrible. The rally ended at twelve-thirty and by this time, all the students were ready to tear Jackson to pieces. Moody became very involved with the movement due to what she went through in Centreville. She was fed up with the murders, the beating, and all the mistreatment towards the blacks. She wanted to make a difference, and not be like the blacks that were scared of fighting for equality. She wanted to be a freedom fighter. During the night of the rally she became inspired to come forth and put her all in the movement. Additionally, the rally proved to show that there is a chance for freedom, because there were a great majority of blacks that supported the movement as well. “We Shall Overcome”, roamed through the air sung by the black students from Tougaloo. The lyrics and emotion from the song empowered them to look forward; it was only the beginning of a great change to come forth their way.