This Day in Anne Moody History - March 8

By Roscoe Barnes III
Chairman, Anne Moody History Project
Copyright (c) 2018

On March 8, 1973, George Raymond Jr., friend of Anne Moody, died of a heart attack at the age of 30 in New Orleans, La. Raymond was a civil rights activist during the 1960s. He was known for his work as a Freedom Rider and leader of Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) in Mississippi.

Moody spoke about his demise in a 1985 interview with Debra Spencer of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH). She was discussing the toll that the movement took on the workers. “You don’t know the effect that it has on you mentally,” she said. “It wears; it tears at the root of your heart.”

She described Raymond as a “fantastic person” who married a girl from Canton, Miss. She recalled:

Minnie Lou and Mrs. Devine were telling me, “I think the main reason he died, Anne, was because of all the betrayal from people he thought were his friends and how the things were going with the movement.”

He just went away and died in New Orleans at the age of 29 (actually 30). That was so sad, but you see, had not I gone away it was the same. It was that I would suffer the same tragedy….

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To learn more about Anne Moody, visit here.