Stevie Ann Wright

AAS 326
Dr. Ross
21 April 2015
Slavery in Mississippi: A Two-Person Perspective
To most people, slavery is a touchy subject based mainly on racial dominance and
violence. To Anne Moody and Simeon Wright, it was just a way of life. Each wrote about
hardships they faced and how they overcame them. After reading both books, it becomes
apparent how closely related both of their lives were, but also how different. While
Moody and Wright both lived in Mississippi around the same time, their stories vary
based on where they lived and whom they encountered throughout their lives.
Segregation was still very much a law and civil rights for all was unheard of. It is difficult
to completely understand what went on during this time without actually being there, but
Moody and Wright both wrote great books offering their insight on a time period that
most people try to avoid. Many events took place during this time period, most of them
violent. Moody sought civil rights for all and Wright sought justice for the wrongful
murder of his cousin. One thing is certain, both Moody and Wright, who were both black
plantation workers in Mississippi at the time, impacted America significantly in different
ways.
To understand what made Moody and Wright decide to stand up for their rights,
we need to explore their living conditions and experiences more extensively. As William
Faulkner once stated, to understand the World, you must first understand a place like
Mississippi. Moody, also known as Essie Mae throughout most of her childhood, lived

far more poorly than Wright. Essie Mae grew up in a small town called Centreville while
Wright grew up in a town called Money, both rural towns in Mississippi. Moody and her
family lived in rotten wood two-room shacks that could hardly pass as a place to live
(Moody, 11). On the other hand, Wright lived much more lavishly. By the time Simeon
was twelve, he and his family moved into a house that had [previously] been the home
of the boss man, Mr. Frederick, before he built himself a new one, and it wasnt the
typical shack- [they] had a screened front porch (Wright, 26). Screened porches, let
alone separate bedrooms and living spaces, were highly uncommon among plantation
workers during this time. Because their living situations differed so significantly, it would
come as no surprise that so did their eating habits. When Essie Mae was a young girl, her
father ran off with a widowed plantation and left her mother to take care of all the
children. This made the money her mother made a lot harder to budget now because she
was now the only one working. Mama, as they all called her, later on ends up with a
yellow soldier named Raymond who does his best to help Mama, but because they kept
deciding to expand their family, it made it harder and harder to make ends meet.
Big families were not uncommon during this time, especially in plantation
families. Wright was the last of [his mothers] eight children, coming into the world
behind Moses Jr., George Arthur, Thelma, Loretha, Willie Crosby, Maurice, and Robert.
Counting the children Dad had by his first wife, [Simeon] had eleven brothers and sisters
in all (Wright, 23). Unlike Essie Mae, most of Simeons meals contained meat. Rabbit,
chicken, and hog were the three most common meats Simeon and his family ate. The end
of the year, when it got cold, was hog season. After his dad and some close neighbors
slaughtered all the hogs, they would then cure the meat so that it would stay fresh.

Simeon and his family ate just about everything on the hog, including the brains, which
Daddy loved scrambled with some eggs (Wright, 31). Dessert, something that could
almost pass as a delicacy, was often served and was usually a pie. Because blueberries
grew along the road and the railroad track [Simeon and his siblings] would pick them
and they would make blueberry pies (Wright, 31). As previously stated, Essie Mae and
her family ate much less lavishly. When [Essie Mae] was the only one in school, Mama
would buy one loaf of bread a week and a jar of peanut butter and jelly for lunch. [Essie
Mae] had a peanut butter sandwich everyday (Moody, 42). Because Mama Moody did
not make as much as The Wrights, she could not afford the same luxuries, such as meat.
One similarity that Moody and Wright did share was the death of Emmett Till.
Both Essie Mae and Simeon were around the same age when the tragedy occurred. The
only difference as was the impact that it made on each of their lives.
Emmett, or Bobo as Simeon called him, was Wrights cousin. When the incident
occurred, Bobo was visiting the Wright family in Mississippi. Bobo was a fourteen-yearold boy from Chicago who did not understand the rules that the Whites had set forth for
the Blacks in Mississippi. Because of this, he was taken from the Wrights home by two
local white males and then later killed. Simeon has Bobo had been sharing a bedroom the
night that he was taken. In his book, Wright recalls what he was thinking while he lay in
bed listening to his parents plead with the two locals as they took Bobo from his bed in
the middle of the night. I was now fully awake but still not moving. It was now crystal
clear that these men were up to no good. They had come for Bobo, and no amount of
begging, pleading, or payment was going to stop them (Wright, 58). Essie Mae was less
impacted by the death of Emmett, but it nonetheless still sparked her interest. She could

not understand why he was so viciously murdered out of nowhere. Simeon had a much
better understanding of the rules of segregation than Essie Mae. At this time, Essie Mae
still did not fully grasp the rules and regulation of segregation just yet. According to her,
everyone should have been treated equally. Because she developed this idea early on, it is
no wonder she later on became a very well known Black Rights Activist.
Emmett Till, also known as Bobos, death was a tragedy, but unfortunately only
one of many that took place. When Essie Mae was in high school, a house down the road
from hers was burnt down with the family trapped inside. I almost vomited when I
caught a whiff of the odor of burned bodies mixed with gasoline. The wooden frame
house had been burned to ashes (Moody, 135). This act of violence was a tool whites
used to send a message as well as inflict fear. Whites during this time believed they were
the dominant race and felt they need to do whatever it took to keep it that way.
Another act of violence that was significant in Moodys life was the murder of
Samuel OQuinn. One night as he was walking the few blocks from town to his house
he was shot in the back from close range with a double-barreled gun. The blast left a hole
through his chest large enough to stick a fist through (Moody, 187). Hearing about
Samuels death, Moody suddenly began to recall all the acts of violence shed
encountered in her life. Every Sunday after the murder, Moody had to now walk over the
exact spot that Samuel was murdered at. This then sparked an anger in Moody, who was
now very actively involved in both the NAACP and CORE, thus causing her to begin to
fight even more actively for Black Rights. I hated myself and every Negro in Centreville
for not putting a stop to the killings or at least putting up a fight in an attempt to stop
them (Moody, 187).

Moody participated in multiple sit-ins that took place in the Jackson, Madison
County, Canton and other areas of Mississippi. After one of Moodys first sit-ins all
[Moody] could think was how sick Mississippi whites were. They believed so much in
the segregated southern way of life, they would kill to preserve it (Moody, 267). She
was arrested and beat mercilessly on numerous accounts. Even after all this, Moody still
persevered. [She] was the first Negro from [Centreville] who had openly demonstrated,
worked with the NAACP, or anything (Moody, 268). This motivated her to work even
harder at actively seeking civil rights for all. Because of all the segregation violence that
Moody encountered in her life, she felt it was almost like her lifes goal to allow Negros
the same rights as Whites.
While Simeon was not as actively involved in activist groups such as the NAACP
like Mood was, he still did his part to change the world for Negros.
In July 2008, [Simeon] received a call from Alvin Sykes of the Emmett Till
Justice Campaign. He alerted [Simeon] that members 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 (Wright, 123).
Wright actively put forth his efforts to help pass the Till Bill. It took many months of hard
work, but Wright stayed positive and persevered through. Finally, on September 24,
2008, [Simeon] got a call from Senator Harry Reid informing [him] that the Till Bill had
finally passed (Wright, 127).
Both Moody and Wright faced many hardships in their lives, but they did not let it
slow them down. Moody from the beginning had a mind of her own and used it to help

provide human rights for Negros everywhere. Wright watched his cousin, Bobo, get taken
from his home in 1955 and 53 years later he finally brought justice to his cousin and
every other Negro who was wrongfully accused. Moody and Wright significantly
impacted America for centuries to come with the activist that they did when segregation
was still a problem. Without these two historical figures, it is hard to say where American
would be today with their civil rights laws.