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Bradley Bodkins
Dr. Ross
21 April 2015
HIS 308
Simeons Story and Coming of Age in Mississippi
In 2015 in Mississippi people of all races, economic levels, and creeds live together in
relative harmony. Mississippi today looks like a completely different place from that of
Mississippi in 1940. It could still potentially look like of Mississippi in 1940 if people like Anne
Moody, Simeon Wright, and the NAACP had not fought for equality for themselves and all
African Americans. Anne Moody was born to a poor black family in the 1940s. Her parents
were sharecroppers on a large plantation. Simeon Wright was also born to a poor black family in
the 1940s and his father was also a sharecropper. The lives of Anne Moody and Simeon Wright
are like that of many African Americans in the days of institutionalized segregation in rural
Mississippi. They had to start out at the bottom of society and if nothing had changed they would
have had little to no opportunity for advancement. Many African Americans at this time would
be born poor farmers and they would die poor farmers. The prejudices that they endured are hard
to imagine todays society where while there still is racism it is arguably less severe. The
beginning of their stories are not exactly unique in the history of racial equality, but their stories
do have distinguishing characteristics of their own person triumphs over adversity and their fight
for equality.
The first similarity that they share is that at a young age both Simeon Wright and Anne
Moody had to discover and try to understand how and why white people were somehow better
than they were. For a young child trying to understand racism seems impossible, it still is hard to
understand racism fully as an adult. For a child differences need to be obvious, they dont
understand political and societal differences. Anne Moody talk about this in her book Coming of
Age in Mississippi. She describes in various scenes of the book her childhood struggle to figure

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out what made white people white people and what made them better that her. This was made
even harder to understand when two of her uncles Sam and Walter were white but still treated
like all of her black relatives. She could not really understand why even though they were white
they were not actually white. She thought that she would be able to easily discern the differences
that made white people better and black people worse. At one point she thought that it might
even have something to do with the peoples genitals that somehow the different races had
different looking private parts. On page 34 she writes this, I had all of them, Katie, Bill, Sandra,
and Paul plus Adline and Junior take off their clothes and stand in line as I sat on one of the apple
crates and examined them. I looked in their mouths and ears, put my ear to their hearts to listen
for their heartbeats. Then I had them lie down on the leaves and I looked at their privates. I
examined each of them about three times, but I didnt see any differences. I still hadnt found
that secret (Moody 34). She thought that there must be something other than skin color that
made people different and that it must be something that she just did not know about yet. Simeon
Wright also experienced this question when he was younger when he was playing with a white
boy named Tommy. He would feel weird about swimming with his clothes off in front of white
people. He also notes how Tommy could basically come by and play whenever he wanted but
Simeon was not allowed to initiate them playing together. For a child it must have been very hard
to truly ever understand why all of this was the way it was. Wright puts it clearly when he writes,
Once my mother told me that when Tommy became a man, I would have to call him mister. But
he would never have to call me that. We were the same age, and I made up my mind then and
there that I would never call him mister. This was my first real reaction to Jim Crow. But over the
next few years, I had to learn the other unwritten laws of the South that my mother and father
knew very well (Wright 2). These unwritten laws of the south are one hand terrible and seem

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like there would be to get rid of them, but on the other hand the punishments for going against
them are so severe that most are scared to do anything about them.
These unwritten laws bring up the second thing that connects Simeon Wright and Anne
Moody, which is when Emmett Till supposedly broke one of these unwritten law and was
brutally killed because it. Emmett Tills murder is said to be by many the event that ignited the
modern Civil Rights Movement in America. His death certainly did stir up equality movement
sentiment in Wright and Moodys life. The impact on Simeon Wrights life is very easily seen
because of his relation to Emmett and his closeness to the abduction. But the abduction also had
an impact on Anne Moody. She writes on page 132, Before Emmett Tills murder, I had known
the fear of hunger, hell, and the Devil. But now there was a new fear know to me- the fear of
being killed just because I was black. This was the worst of my fears (Moody 132). She goes on
to say that she knew how to calm all of her fears, all except dying because of her race. She said
she did not know what to do or not to do to not be killed. The Murder of Emmitt Till also had an
impact on her because of his murder she was able to over hear the woman she worked for and
her guild members talk about the NAACP which Moody had never heard about before and could
not have ever heard of in time to join the movement. This happened because of Emmett Till
because from Moodys description of her mother which seems to be very hands off when it
comes to the equality of people. She seems to be like many people at that time to be a person
who does not like how things are but are too afraid for their families and their own safety. Which
seems today to be a very bad thing and that more people should have done something to change
the status quo. But for a lot of people when it comes to a decision between living in a terrible
time and actually living, actually living wins every time. Also overcoming the racial times
seemed by many to be an impossible task. Emmett Tills murder helped to change this view in
many people. It seemed to be the event that broke the dam for many people and in Anne

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Moodys case was the event that allowed her to know that there were people fighting for equality
and eventually join NAACP, participate in a sit in, and join CORE.
One major difference between Anne Moody and Simeon Wright is how they were raised
relation to standing up against white oppression. It has already be established that Anne Moodys
home life was not the most conducive to standing up against the oppression she faced in daily
life. Her mother when she was growing up was very much a person with the attitude that Anne
should just worry about keeping herself and her family safe and not worrying about the events
happenings in other places to other people. She also told Anne to act like she did not know
anything when it came to things like the NAACP and Emmett Tills murder when she was
around whites. And her father was not around to tell her anything different. Simeon Wright on
the other hand had his father who was a very proud man that did not seem to take any injustice
from anyone. His father was also a good example by taking the stand during the trial even though
that was very dangerous for him and his family.
Another major difference between Anne Moody and Simeon Wright is their participation
in the Civil Rights Movement after the Emmett Till incident. Simeon Wright and his family
moved out of Mississippi immediately after the not guilty verdict was given, although they
probably would have had to leave much quicker if the verdict had been guilty due to the public
outlasting that would have happened. And it seems that he did not have any major involvement
in any Civil Rights Organizations. He seemed to grow up without really doing much until the
body of Emmett Till was exhumed in the early 2000s. On the other hand Anne Moody was very
much involved in many Civil Rights Organizations during her lifetime. She was a member of the
NAACP which she had learned about by over hearing a guild member in the house of a racist
woman she worked for. She participated in a sit in where she was covered in many things
including mustard and flour. She was also a member of CORE. She was a very active member

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and participant in the Civil Rights Movement and if it was not for her courage and others
courage like her things would probably look a lot different today. Which is not to say that
Simeon Wright is any less important because he did not do much in the Civil Rights Movement it
is very easy to see how he and his family could be discouraged to do something during those
trying times after seeing their efforts in the case be fruitless. Just by writing this book is taking a
stand for his cousin. So even though they took different paths to aid the movement they
ultimately both aided the movement.
Lastly one final area that Simeon Wright, Anne Moody, and the death of Emmett Till
have had a great impact on is legislature. Simeon Wright writes, In July 2008, I received a call
from Alvin Sykes on the Emmett Till Justice Campaign. He alerted me that member of the U.S.
Senate were seeking passage of the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Bill. The Till
Bill, as it was called, would create a cold case unit at the Justice Department to investigate
unsolved civil rights murders that occurred before 1970 (Simeon 123). This bill did take a small
amount of time to pass but it did pass the Senate unanimously and was signed into law in
October of 2008. This bill is not only important for the legacy of Emmett Till and trying to find
some amount of justice for him. But it also a victory in a way for all of the men, women, and
children that were killed before 1970. Those people who perhaps unlike Emmett Till never even
had a court case, perhaps they never even had their bodies found or identified. Legislation like
this and all of the civil rights legislation that has come about in the days since the abolishment of
slavery have and will hopefully bring about justice for those who for so long seemed like they
would never get any.
Anne Moodys and Simeon Wrights legacies will ultimately one of fighting for justice.
Because of their actions African Americans who were mistreated, killed, and all of the other
injustices that they had put upon them will get some sort of justice that they would not have had

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if Moody and others had not taken a stand. Because of their action Mississippi now looks very
different than it did in 1940.