Civil rights pioneer Anne Moody can now be seen on the Mississippi Writers Trail (MWT) in Centerville. Their story is shared on an official marker on West Park Street North at Louis Gaulden and the Riquita Jackson Family Memorial Park across from the Kevin Poole Van Cleave Library.
Moody, who wrote Coming of Age in Mississippi and Mr. Death: Four Stories, was born and raised in Centerville. Both sides of the marker show a biographical sketch of her life as a civil rights activist and her work as a writer.
The unveiling ceremony was organized by Maggie Lowery, Cultural Programs Manager at Visit Mississippi, and Felicia Williams, Ward 1’s Alder Woman in Centerville.
“I am honored to be part of the program this morning,” said Dr. Stuart Rockoff, Executive Director of the Mississippi Humanities Council. “The Mississippi Writers Trail celebrates our state’s extraordinary literary heritage. We take great pride in how great writers like Anne Moody have gathered their experience in this sometimes difficult and complicated place to create profound art that has moved readers around the world. “
Rockoff said Moody’s book personally affected him, a white Texas man, after reading it in graduate school.
“The book became widely popular in universities because of its eloquent and haunting truth about the experience of growing up in a society profoundly shaped or malformed by white supremacy,” he said, noting that Moody had grown up in a society that “Predicated” was based on the idea that white lives are more important. “
According to Rockoff, Moody’s genius as a writer is how she got readers involved in their own experience. “We see the world of Jim Crow Mississippi through their eyes,” he said. “And as soon as we experience this, we are changed forever.”
Rockoff was one of several people who spoke during the ceremony. John Moore, serving as Mayor of Centerville Pro Tempore and Alderman of Ward 3, provided the invocation; Dr. He was greeted by Roscoe Barnes III, Chair of the Anne Moody History Project and Tourism Heritage Manager for Visit Natchez. Barnes was previously a chaplain at the Wilkinson County Correctional Facility, the birthplace of the Anne Moody History Project.
Alderwoman Williams shared comments and facilitated the disclosure. Williams read from the marker’s biographical sketch and described Moody as a heroine of the civil rights movement. In Coming of Age, she said, Moody “clearly and eloquently articulates what it is like to grow up in poverty, suffer racial discrimination, and fight for social change as a civil rights activist.”
Moody died in 2015 at the age of 74. At the time of her death, she was living in Gloster, Miss. She will now join other famous writers such as Eudora Welty, Margaret Walker, Elizabeth Spencer, William Faulkner, Tennessee Williams and Shelby Foote, Walker Percy and Ida B. Wells.
The message from the marker was first shared by Williams in December 2019. She had worked with Lowery to secure a place for his location. Funding for the project was made possible by a grant from the National Endowment of the Humanities, Lowery said.
The unveiling ceremony was originally scheduled for March 31st. However, it has been postponed due to COVID-19.
Lowery recently attended the ceremony with Kristen Brandt, director of the arts industry for the Mississippi Arts Commission, and Marion Barnwell, a Mississippi historian. Some local citizens, which included children, also attended the event.
The Mississippi Writers Trail is an initiative of the Mississippi Arts Commission in partnership with the Community Foundation for Mississippi, the Mississippi Book Festival, the Mississippi Humanities Council, Visit Mississippi, the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, and the Mississippi Library Commission.
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