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