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  In Anne Moody's autobiography Coming of Age in Mississippi, Anne Moody tells her life through four critical stages. They are childhood, high school, college, and the movement. Each stage shows significance in the events in her life during that time. Anne shows what live for a black woman was like and how she had the courage to survive.

    Anne Moody( Essie Mae through her childhood), was living on "Mr. Carter's plantation," while her parents worked for Mr. Carter. Many events occurred that shaped Anne?s life during her childhood, including her eight year old uncle, George Lee, who beat her when he babysat her, the separation of her parents, her parents marrying "yellow people", and the confrontation of being white by her "friends" and classmates. Ann (Essie  Mae) also begins working at an early age to help support her poor family. Anne makes the reader see what being a poor, black child, in the late forties, early fifties was like.

    Throughout high school Anne becomes dependent. She also becomes extremely interested in black?s rights. This is the beginning of her interest in the movement. Anne becomes troubled when Emmett Till is murdered, a fourteen year old boy who supposedly whistled at a white woman. Anne soon sees unfair prejudices in her own town. Anne goes to New Orleans to work and she lives with her uncle there. She goes for the summer to get away from the suffocation because of racism in Mississippi, where she becomes even more interested in the movement. Anne is also blooming into a beautiful young lady and everyone thinks she is attractive.

    Anne soon goes to Natchez college on a basketball scholarship, where she receives straight A?s which is not unusual for the intelligent woman that she is. At Natchez, Anne begins a protest, which foreshadows the role she will later have in the movement. After Natchez, Anne then goes to Tougaloo, the best black college around. At Tougaloo, Anne becomes involved with National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).

     Her involvement in these committees eventually led to her importance in the movement. Anne is soon leading sit-ins and standing up for her rights along with Martin Luther King and Jackie Robinson. However, Anne realizes that her town in Mississippi will never change and because of her involvement she cannot visit her family or she would put them in even more danger than they were already in. During a nonviolent protest, McKinley Hamilton, a young boy, was beat to death right in front of Anne and later she heard of Martin Luther King being beat also, Anne wondered if things would ever be different for the people of her race. At the end of the book, Anne graduates from Tougaloo showing her intelligence even though it was a hard time for her. It was very rare for blacks, especially woman to graduate from college during this time. Throughout Anne's life she had proved to be intelligent, courageous, and strong as a "Negro living in the fifties."  

Each time a man stands up for an ideal,

or acts to improve the lot of others,

or strikes out against injustice,

he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope,

and crossing each other from a million

different centers of energy and daring,

those ripples build a current, which can sweep down

the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance

-Robert F. Kennedy (Gottheimer)

    Civil rights are one of the fundamental aspects of our country. We are a democratic nation, a nation that practices equality. It is important that this value be kept in mind when the government makes decisions. (Funk and Wagnall). Minorities are men and women too, not animals or property and they should be treated equal to other Americans. Everyone should be treated equally in this country because we claim to be a democratic nation, which is freedom and equality for all.

    For example, in the court case of Plessy vs. Ferguson, the judge turned a blind eye on democratic principles and declared Blacks as being "separate but equal". Then in 1954, in the case of Brown vs. Board of Education, the new Chief Justice, Earl Warren, overturned the decision in the Plessy vs. Ferguson case, which encouraged a wave of resistance against segregation in the decade that would follow. It was evident to Warren that "separate but equal" did not adhere to democratic principles and that stimulated him to rule accordingly. During the 1950?s, many people advocated for human civil rights. These people produced "ripples", which eventually developed into huge currents, creating the way in which we live today. These people influenced others to stand firm on their convictions and fight for them, even if it meant to be different, just as long as equality was achieved.

   In our history, civil rights deserve special attention; this is due to the fact that several important events occurred, such as the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Rosa Park arrest, and the Selma Marches. These movements caused the initiative for individuals to establish one?s civil rights to pervade throughout the entire nation. Each of these acts impacted the lives of those in the 1950?s and nevertheless, the lives of those today. On December1, 1955, Rosa Parks rode the bus home from work, just as she did every other day. However, what was soon to occur was entirely unexpected. The bus was divided in a sense that the whites sat at the front whereas the blacks sat at the back; intermingling was prohibited. The bus soon became packed thus Parks was ordered by the driver to surrender her seat to a white. Parks refused and was consequently arrested.

    On December 5, 1955, Blacks congregated to protest against the segregation in public buses. From them on, the Blacks protested passively by boycotting the buses and walking instead. This lasted from December 5, 1955 and continued 1956. The entire nation had heard about it and this incident was seen by civil rights leaders as a pretext to protest ( Gilliam). These people resented being trampled on and desired the democracy they rightly deserved. The boycott had been an initiative for the blacks throughout the nation to demonstrate for what they were worth. They triumphed; segregation of the blacks was eradicated. Success had resulted from the small "ripple" that Rosa Parks had established.

    Another important civil rights movement was in Selma, Alabama. In 1964, Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, guaranteeing equal opportunity for minorities. As with all others, this act was nevertheless ignored. On January 25, 1965 Martin Luther King was accused of "stepping too close to the line," the voting line in which blacks waited to register to vote. Annie Lee Cooper, was waiting in line to register to vote. She had witnessed the incident between King and the Sheriff and stepped out of line to protect King from the Sheriff. As a result, Cooper was brutally beaten by the Sheriff and his fellow officers. She was charged for assault of the Sheriff, who accused her of smashing his face and making his eye swell. This soon led to the civil rights movement in Selma. From January to July,1965, minorities fought for protection against harassment, intimidation, and the arrest of blacks attempting to register to vote (Gottheimer). This movement was instigated by the small "ripple" that Annie Lee Cooper had started.

    From all of the above examples, it is noted that even a small "ripple" can amplify into a huge current. Each person's right is equally important in this nation democracy. When people don?t receive the right that they deserve, a small ripple produced by a single individual is sufficient to generate a large enough current to produce change. The civil rights movements during the 1950?s not only changed the way in which I live today, but also on an even larger scale, in which everyone lives today.