Matthew Graziano 1

November 4th, 2020

Chuck Berry's America

History 119 A

Second Essay
In general, there are controversies circling around rock and roll. Rock and Roll challenged

racial segregation and caused African American parents to oppose civil rights for their children.

This reinforced the opposition of rock music because of how the music interacted with young

adolescent teens. Parents feared that rock and roll music caused teens to be more socially

accepting of integrated concerts and schools. Meanwhile, parents even challenged the thought of

integrated concerts and schools for the better of their children in the harsh world they are

growing up in. This pivoted a role in respect to Anne Moody’s life saying that Rock and Roll’s

positive impact was overstated. Throughout the novel, Anne Moody adapted her mindset to

being a true African American woman during the time. She was able to work for a living and

support her family while taking all the heavy hits from a racist world forcing her to push through

her struggles to survive for her family. However, rock and roll had no relevance. In her life and

was merely fleeted once across the novel. Essentially, from both accounts from Wierzbicki and

Lawson, they underscored the argument that Rock and Roll played However, in an account of

Anne Moody’s life in the book Coming to Age in Mississippi, showed that rocks positive impact

was overstated rather than helpful.

Many African American parents of young adolescent teens opposed the harsh reality that Rock

and Roll Music Portrayed. Many parents believed that Rock music negatively influenced their
children with the message it portrayed in its lyrics and the actions of some of the performers and

the rebellious nature these rock songs were framed for inspiring. Some artists who aggravated

many parents was Elvis Presley. Elvis Presley is famous for his dance moves on stage,

specifically the way he flicks and flails his hips which drove teenage girls mad. That is one of the

main driving factors to oppose rock and roll because they see massive artists doing that on stage

and don’t want the same for their kids. Explicit lyrics also angered parents of young teenagers.

These lyrics put inappropriate ideas into young minds that parents didn’t want their kids to hear

or learn about yet. Aggravated parents began to riot began to riot over Rock Music. Black and

White teens integrating into large groups as one dancing and singing their hearts out to music

which parents did not like. This didn’t help African Americans in the long run. The media

displayed this; it showed a negative impact towards the idea of segregating. In Addition, parents

apposed of disc-jockeys playing rock and roll on their stations, an example of this would be Alen

Freed. 1 Alan Freed was a Clevland disc jockey who promoted rhythm and blues records. In the

early 1950s, he helped “blazed the trail for urban white audience’s acceptance of what eventually

became known as rock n’ roll” and helped expand the number of teenagers who listened to rock

and roll music. Since parents feared rock and roll caused juvenile delinquency within teenagers,

Alan Freed rebottled that “no more than 5 percent of teenagers were delinquents, and yet the

small minority had lately been glamorized by Hollywood”. Yet, parents associated rock and roll

with “hoodlums” and feared it “might somehow be subverting the moral of their children”. It

gave white supremacists and anti-colored believers another excuse to stop segregation.

After reading Coming to age in Mississippi, one could conclude that rocks' positive impact was

overstated. Through Anne Moody’s (also known as Essiemae) never encountered rock n roll

music in her lifetime. During one section of the auto biography, she only mentioned reference to
one Rock and Roll song, yet she never experienced anything positive from Rock and Roll. Anne

Moody’s little to no experience with rock music gave her no chance to see a positive impact on

the world. However, she did experience the opposition to civil rights. Throughout Anne Moody's

life, she began to discover how to become a “real African American Women” in the 1950’s.

Throughout her life Anne Moody’s life she questioned why there was segregation in the first

place. A major reality check was when she worked for Mrs. Burke. A person she worked with for

some time and became close with her daughter treated her poorly because of the color of her

skin. Mrs. Burke accused her of theft of things she never took and wanted to dehumanize Anne

Moody through making her be segregated from entering the front door, hosting white

supremacist group meetings at work with Anne present while also accusing Anne's brother of

being a thief as well. When Anne arrived in New Orleans, she was uplifted and praised for her

looks which was uncommon for her where she grew up.

Through Anne Moody’s life, it was Evident that rock and roll did not play any significance. She

still struggled with being an African American woman and still got dehumanized by employers

for the color of her skin and was not given the chance to be judge on her character. However, she

did strive for Civil Rights by getting involved in a countless number of Civil Rights groups

shortly after seeing the death and murder of young Emmett Till. At the same time as the civil

rights movement was going on, Rock and Roll emerged. Through Alen Freed introducing Rock

and Roll as a Disc-Jockey, parents argued rock and roll caused juvenile delinquency in young

teenagers listening to the music, However, only 5% of teenagers were considered juvenile and

that the media portrayed fear in parents' eyes. Parents questioned whether they could let their

kids listen to rock and roll music or should even be dancing to it. Parents were worried the nature

of the music influenced sexual activity amongst young teenagers and put ideas in their heads that
parents felt were not proper to be in their children's minds yet. Overall, Lawson and Wierzbicki

examined the parent's opposition to rock and roll while leading to the civil rights movement and

through Anne Moody’s life it was clear that rock’s positive impact was overstated.