Artifacts Housed at
African American Museum in Woodville
By Roscoe Barnes III
Chairman, Anne Moody
History Project
Copyright © 2018
#AnneMoody
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| 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.
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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
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| 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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For more information:
See the Anne Moody
page here.
