Anne Moody’s Final Resting Place

Family Buries Her Ashes Beside her Mother in Mount Pleasant Missionary Baptist Church Cemetery

By Roscoe Barnes III

Chairman, Anne Moody History Project

Copyright (c) 2018

#AnneMoody

Family of Anne Moody buried her ashes during a special service on Saturday, July 7, 2018, at the Mount Pleasant Missionary Baptist Church Cemetery in Centreville, Miss. From left: Frances Jefferson, her sister; Rev. LeReginald Jones, assistant pastor of Mount Pleasant; Rev. Dr. Roscoe Barnes III;  and Adline Moody, Anne’s sister. 

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CENTREVILLE, Miss. -- Civil Rights Pioneer Anne Moody, author of Coming of Age in Mississippi, is now resting beside her mother, Elmira “Too Sweet” Williams Moody Jefferson, in the Mount Pleasant Missionary Baptist Church Cemetery in Centreville, Miss.

Her sister, Adline Moody, said it was time to bring her home.

Her family held a memorial service – the second one -- on Saturday, July 7, 2018, where they paid their respects and buried her ashes. Anne, who was born and raised in Centreville in southwest Mississippi, died on Feb. 5, 2015, at the age of 74. Her remains were cremated on Feb. 6, 2015. Arrangements were entrusted to Richardson Funeral Home of Clinton, La.

“This is only fitting,” Adline said of the July burial. “This is the perfect place for Anne … next to her mom. Her dad is right over there. She traveled the whole wide world and she ended up right back where she started. Right here at Mount Pleasant.”

The first memorial service was held on Saturday, Feb. 14, 2015, at 2753 Antioch Perkins Road in a rural section of Gloster, Miss. Her ashes had been kept by her son, Sasha Straus, and Adline.

Anne’s grave is adorned with flowers and a monument. The face of the marble structure bears the inscription:

Freedom fighter, Beloved Mother, Daughter and Sister.

Great Humanitarian. You fought the fight.

Rest in peace, Anne.

Love you.

Anne Moody

September 15, 1940 to February 5, 2015

Mount Pleasant donated the piece of land for the burial and Anne’s family provided the monument and the flowers.

Sasha Straus, son of Anne Moody, was one of several family members who participated in her burial ceremony at the Mount Pleasant Missionary Baptist Church Cemetery, Centreville, Miss., on Saturday, July 7, 2018.

‘Modern-day Esther’

The Rev. LeReginald Jones, assistant pastor for Mount Pleasant, officiated the graveside service. He described Anne as a great woman and a freedom fighter. Her burial, he said, brings everything full circle.

“It is an honor for us to have such a heroine to be planted right here, so that when the story is told, they can always come back home,” he said. “They can come back to Anne’s home, and we can tell that story.”

Jones said Anne was like Esther in the Bible, who rose to help her people “for such a time as this.” He said: “Some 50 years ago, I do believe under the providential orchestration of the hand of God, that he called Anne Moody for such a time as this. She was our modern-day Esther” who fought against discrimination and injustice.

Anne’s sister, Frances Jefferson, said the burial was important for Anne and the community.

“She needed to come home,” she said. “Anne left home in her teens and my mother grieved for her when she was away.”

Too Sweet often cried for Anne, fearing for her safety. “She didn’t know where she was,” said Frances. “I couldn’t stand to see my mother cry. She was very protective.”

But now Anne is home, back where her story began, Frances said.

In addition to Adline, Sasha and Frances, a number of other family members and friends attended the ceremony. Family members included Jerry Love, Dorothy Veals, JoAnne Coles, Felix Cole, James Cole, Doris Whitehead, and Elvira Taplin, all cousins of Anne; Sherry Jefferson, wife of Anne’s brother, Ralph Jefferson; and Rosie Powell, former wife of Anne’s brother, Fred Moody Jr.

Dr. Leigh Ann Wheeler, Anne Moody’s biographer, participated in Moody’s memorial service at the Mount Pleasant Missionary Baptist Church Cemetery, Centreville, Miss., on Saturday, July 7, 2018. She is joined here with her husband, Dr. Donald Nieman, and their son, Brady Wheeler-Nieman; and Moody’s son, Sasha Straus.

Anne’s biographer

Friends who attended the event included Dr. Leigh Ann Wheeler, her husband, Dr. Donald Nieman, both of Binghamton University, New York, and their son, Brady Wheeler-Nieman. Wheeler, who is writing Anne’s biography, shared a few words about Anne during the ceremony.

“I want to thank you all for helping me write Anne’s life story,” she said. “I love her. For 25 years, I have taught her book. I first read it when I taught it with my graduate advisor, Sara Evans, in the 1990s and I have taught it to my own students ever since. It’s life-changing for them, more so today than ever.”

Coming of Age was first published in 1968 and has remained in print since that time.

Wheeler said the book is the one book that she assigns that the students always thank her for. They love the book and they actually read it, she said: “It really helps them understand what it was like to grow up as a young black girl in Mississippi in the 40, the 50s, and the 60s -- something that they otherwise would not even begin to even care about, let alone GET!”

Although she never got to know Anne, Wheeler said she’s beginning to know her through Anne’s family and friends. Wheeler and her family donated purple roses for the ceremony. Purple was Anne’s favorite color.

JoAnne and Dorothy, both daughters of Alberta in Coming of Age, shared brief remarks during the ceremony. JoAnne spoke of how excited they used to be to see Anne when they were kids. She said Anne helped put her through college. Dorothy sang “When the Gates Swing Open.”

The Rev. Dr. Roscoe Barnes III, who chairs the Anne Moody History Project, said Anne was like King David in the Bible who “served his own generation by the will of God.” He said that she had great achievements, but she also faced many challenges, enduring a life of highs and lows.

“But in the end, like David, we can say that she served her purpose,” said Barnes. “She served her own generation by the will of God.”

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Would you like to know more about Anne Moody?

Visit the Anne Moody page here!

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For more information:

See the Anne Moody page here. 

Questions about the Anne Moody History Project may be directed to Roscoe Barnes III via email at doctorbarnes3@gmail.com or roscoebarnes3@yahoo.com. For updates on Anne Moody history and the on-going work of this community service project, simply follow this blog or follow AMHP on Twitter (@AnneMoodyHP). 

#ComingOfAgeinMississippi

Anne Moody Featured in Mississippi Museum

Artifacts Housed at African American Museum in Woodville

By Roscoe Barnes III

Chairman, Anne Moody History Project

Copyright © 2018

#AnneMoody

This photograph of Anne Moody was taken by Chrissy Wilson.

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Note: An earlier version of this article reported Anne Moody's typewriter was on display at the African American Museum. We have learned that the typewriter on display was NOT owned by Moody. For this reason, we have deleted mentions of the typewriter in this article. We have also removed the image.

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The African American Museum of Woodville, Miss., is one of the hidden gems of southwest Mississippi. It features artifacts related to several historic figures, including Anne Moody, author of Coming of Age in Mississippi.

Moody was a civil rights pioneer who was born in 1940 in the small rural town of Centreville, Miss. She lived in the town until the age of 17, at which time she moved to Woodville to live with her father, Fred Moody Sr. Woodville is 14 miles west of Centreville. Moody attended Johnson High School, a historically black school in Woodville that closed in 1959, the same year she graduated.

Moody’s ties to Woodville make the museum even more relevant. In addition to her book, Coming of Age, the museum displays a copy of her book, Mr. Death: Four Stories.

The museum includes a large photograph of Moody that was taken by Chrissy Wilson. The portrait shows a smiling Moody in her younger days, wearing a knit cap. Along with the portrait, the museum displays a short biography of Moody.

In addition to Moody, the museum features William Grant Still (1895 - 1978), who was known as a world famous composer and dean of African American classical composers. He is remembered as the first African American to conduct a major orchestra. He conducted the Los Angeles Symphony in 1936.

Other noted figures in the museum are blues guitarist Scott Dunbar (1909 - 1994) and saxophonist Lester “Pres” Young (1909 - 1959). Outside the museum is a Woodville Blues sign. It presents the following:

Musicians from Woodville demonstrate the breadth of the blues’s influence on American music. Composer William Grant Still incorporated the blues into his “Afro-American Symphony,” while the innovative saxophonist Lester “Pres” Young helped define the blues-infused jazz styles of the Count Basie orchestra and vocalist Billie Holiday. More traditional blues artists from the area include Scott Dunbar and his protégé Robert Cage.

The museum is owned and operated by the Woodville Civic Club (WCC). It is located behind the courthouse on the corner of Royal Oak Street and Bank Street in the heart of Woodville's historic district. The museum opened in 2004 after the WCC received a grant to restore its building, according to WCC Executive Director Ernesto Caldeira. “In 2004, thanks to a Mississippi Department of Archives and History Grant, the restoration was completed and the service dependency with bathrooms and storage facilities was built,” according to the WCC website.

In collecting items for display, the museum volunteers wanted to focus on the positive, Caldeira said. He explained: “We wanted to show the accomplishments and contributions of African Americans to the arts and to the literary world. We’re delighted that we have good representations in the people we’re featuring.”

As for Moody, Caldeira said he did not get to meet her. However, his associate, David Smith, spoke with her and invited her to the museum. But she was not able to come.

Moody died in 2015 at the age of 74. She had been suffering from dementia, according to her  sisters, Adline Moody and Frances Jefferson.

This two-story building, constructed around 1819, is the home of
the African American Museum. It was known as Branch Banking
House and is believed to be the oldest banking building in Mississippi.

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Centreville, Woodville in

Coming of Age in Mississippi

Moody writes about southwest Mississippi in many parts of her book. She gives colorful anecdotes and memorable descriptions of interesting people and places around her hometown. In an early chapter of her book, she writes about life in the town of Centreville:

“At the end of that summer Mama found it necessary for us to move into town in Centreville, where she worked. This time we moved into a two-room house that was twice the size of the other one.” – Chapter 2, Coming of Age in Mississippi

“I was going to Willis High, the only school Negro school in Centreville. It was named for Mr. C. H. Willis, its principal and founder, and had only been expanded into a high school the year before I started there. Before Mr. Willis came to town, the eighth grade had been the limit of schooling for Negro children in Centreville.” – Chapter 2, Coming of Age in Mississippi

After moving to Woodville, Moody had a room of her own. It was something she appreciated. She lived with her father and his wife, Emma. She writes:

“It was Thursday when I left Alberta’s to live with Daddy. That following Saturday before he went to work, he told me he had given Emma money for us to go into town and buy furniture for my room. He said he had given her enough for me to get whatever I wanted. I was all excited about buying furniture. It was the first time in my life that I would have a room to myself and I was seventeen years old. All that morning I was thinking about how I would fix my room up. I wanted to make it look just like the students’ rooms I had seen in magazines, with a single bed, a bookshelf filled with books, and a desk with a good lamp. I had planned to go to a secondhand store and get most of what I wanted, since I wanted to save most of the money for books. But when we got into town, I discovered Emma had other ideas. She went straight to the most expensive furniture store in Woodville.” – Chapter 16, Coming of Age in Mississippi

Moody spent most of her early years in Centreville, but she also left her mark on Woodville. As a student at Johnson High School, she played basketball under the leadership of Coach Dunbar. She writes:

“Johnson High had become one of the most challenged teams in the state and I was one of its most valuable players. In addition, I organized Johnson High’s first gymnastic and tumbling team, ran track, did substitute teaching, and spent all day Sunday in church. Before I realized it, I was practicing for graduation.” – Chapter 17, Coming of Age in Mississippi

This sign is posted outside the African American Museum.

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Learn MORE about Anne Moody! Visit here to see

the timeline of important events in her life history!

  

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References/Resources:

To arrange a tour of the African American Museum, send request to: info@historicwoodville.com.

Information on the African American Museum and Historic Woodville is available here: http://www.historicwoodville.org and here: http://www.woodvillems.org/about-us/history

For information on the bluesmen featured in the museum, visit:

http://msbluestrail.org/blues-trail-markers/woodville-blues

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For more information: 

See the Anne Moody page here.

Questions about the Anne Moody History Project may be directed to Roscoe Barnes III via email at doctorbarnes3@gmail.com or roscoebarnes3@yahoo.com. For updates on Anne Moody history and the on-going work of this community service project, simply follow this blog or follow AMHP on Twitter (@AnneMoodyHP). #ComingOfAgeinMississippi

Poet Austin Straus, former husband of Anne Moody, has died

Austin Straus (1939-2017)

He leaves rich creative legacy in art, writing 

By Roscoe Barnes III

Chairman, Anne Moody History Project
Copyright (c) 2017

#AnneMoody

Austin Straus, who was known as a distinguished poet and painter, has died. He was the former husband of Anne Moody, author of Coming of Age in Mississippi (Dial, 1968).

Straus passed on July 20, 2017, at the age of 78. He reportedly had suffered from diabetes. A memorial service is scheduled for Oct. 22, 2017, at Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center in Venice, California. Frances Jefferson, sister of Moody, is helping with the arrangements.

“I saw him last year for the first time since I was nine years old,” Jefferson said by phone. “He was a prolific writer. He was a renowned poet and artist in his own right.”

Straus and Moody had one child, Sasha Straus, "who is his only child," according to Jefferson. Sasha lives in Mississippi. The couple divorced in 1977 and Straus later married Wanda Coleman, who was also a poet. They were married for 32 years when she passed in 2013.

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"I have a split artistic personality so that poems come from one aspect of my mind and visual work from somewhere else, though they do, at times, overlap especially when a poem evokes scenes and places or is very descriptive. I love improvisation, as I write, as I paint or burn (I use fire in my work, usually with a magnifying glass in the sun), and when I perform." -- Austin Straus in Dive Dapper interview

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In addition to being known as a poet, Straus developed a reputation as a painter, printmaker, and book artist. He authored a number of books, collaborated with other writers and published in anthologies. Despite his accomplishments as a writer, he essentially viewed himself as a “book artist,” according to Dr. Bill Mohr, professor in the Department of English at California State University, Long Beach. He shared the following in his blog post about Straus:

“Austin considered himself to be primarily a book artist, and that work can be found in many collections, including Chapman College, Occidental College, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. However, his poems will also remain a steadfast part of the community of poets he joined almost forty years ago.”

Straus was a graduate student at New York University when he met Anne Moody in 1966. At the time, Moody was completing her famous autobiography. She said in a 1985 interview with Debra Spencer that she fell in love:

“…Just as I’d finished Coming of Age, I met a man, (and) fell madly in love. I lived with him for almost a year and married him on March 9, 1967. He was a Jewish guy from Brooklyn, an NYU graduate student in philosophy.”

When Coming of Age came out in 1968, the hardback edition featured a portrait of Moody on the back cover that was taken by Straus. The full portrait has also appeared on the front cover. A cropped headshot from the photo appears on the front cover of the current edition of the book.

In 1971, the couple’s son, Sasha, was born. And In 1972, the family moved to Berlin where they lived until 1974.

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This photo of Anne Moody was taken by her then-husband, Austin Straus.
It was featured on the back cover of the earlier hardback
edition of Coming of Age in Mississippi (Dial, 1968)

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In 1978, about a year after his divorce, Straus moved to Los Angeles. And according to Mohr, he “immediately settled into an ongoing renaissance of poetry in Southern California.” Mohr notes that Straus’ achievements include his role as founder and co-host of “The Poetry Connexion” on KPFK-FM, a position he held from 1981 to 1996. 

In addition to Stand Up Poetry, Straus’ work has appeared in such publications as This Sporting Life, The Maverick Poets, Plainsong, and Alcatraz 3. His list of books includes Intensifications (Red Hen Press, 2010), Drunk with Light (Red Hen Press, 2002), and The Love Project: A Marriage Made in Poetry (Red Hen Press, 2014), which he co-authored with his late wife, Wanda Coleman.

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Drunk with Light (Red Hen Press, 2002) is one 

of several books of poetry by Austin Straus.

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Straus was also featured in Men of Our Time: An Anthology of Male Poetry in Contemporary America (University of Georgia Press, 2004), which is described as a “groundbreaking volume” that brings “together a comprehensive and widely representative selection of poetry reflecting both the diversity and commodity of male experience in the United States today,” according to the book’s publisher. 

Other anthologies in which his work appeared include: The Maverick Poets: An Anthology (Gorilla Press, 1988), edited by Steve Kowit; Amorotica: New Erotic Poetry (Deep River Press, 1981), edited by Elliot Fried; and "Poetry Loves Poetry": An Anthology of Los Angeles Poets (Momentum Press, 1985), edited by Bill Mohr.

In 1991, Straus published Laureate without a Country. He also taught in the English department at Los Angeles City College. 

Over the years, Straus displayed his work in exhibits that featured his drawings, paintings, and prints. Sometimes he presented readings during the events. In his final years, he apparently tried to continue "his life-long exploration of visual poetry with paintings, collages and unique books," according to a post shared by Timothy Green. 

May he rest in peace.

References:

* Professor Bill Mohr provides this link to an audio recording of Austin Straus on Poets Cafe: http://www.timothy-green.org/blog/austin-straus/

* Dive Dapper, which features interviews of "major voices in contemporary poetry," published this piece on Austin Straus: https://www.divedapper.com/interview/austin-straus/

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Editor's Note:

Questions about the Anne Moody History Project may be directed to Roscoe Barnes III via email at doctorbarnes3@gmail.com or roscoebarnes3@yahoo.com For updates on Anne Moody history and the on-going work of this community service project, simply follow this blog or follow AMHP on Twitter (@AnneMoodyHP). #ComingOfAgeinMississippi