Anne Moody Thesis

Anne begins to worry that her efforts are not making a difference. She participated in the sit in at Woolworths in Jackson despite the number of violent threats that she received from whites. However Anne isn’t convinced that the sit in made a huge difference. She participates in other protests and eventually is arrested and jailed for a short period of time. After this Anne receives a letter from her Mom saying that her actions had an effect on her family back in Centreville. Anne Moody then follows Martin Luther King for a little while but after the I Have a Dream speech she concludes that his views are too idealistic. At this point Anne feels even more like her efforts are not making a difference and questions the nonviolent tactics after

Throughout the book Anne is constantly frustrated with her family as well as many other people around her because they choose to avoid confrontation and not fight for equality. It angers her that they choose to live a life of discrimination. To sum this Anne Moody says, “I wonder, I really wonder,” referring to her doubt that her efforts will really help blacks across the country. This is why Anne begins to question nonviolent tactics. She hasn’t seen any considerable progress despite all of her hard work. At the end of the book she is still not in full support of violent tactics, but she sees little progress and is desperate to try something new. Anne also becomes increasingly aware of the African American deaths and develops a desire to fight back. Moody begins to support retaliation to white violence in instances similar to the Woolworth's sit in and the Birmingham church bombing. Many people following Martin Luther King’s nonviolent views were, at times, doubtful that his tactics truly worked. Many African Americans experienced the same level of doubt that Anne Moody

His leadership skills, intelligence, and dedication is what allowed him to become great. Martin Luther King sought to achieve equality by educating blacks in order to, as much as possible, pass the tests that are required to register to vote. Martin Luther King also brings up the idea of self defense and states that blacks should be able to resist retaliating to violent actions by whites. He understands that this can be difficult at times, but reminds African American’s of the hardships that their families go through on a daily basis and persuades them not to retaliate in order to better the lives of their loved ones. Also Martin Luther King knew it would be beneficial to have as much white support as possible and black aggression could potentially deter white supporters. King says that the heros will be people who go to sit ins, choose to not ride the segregated buses, and the ones who will willingly and nonviolently goto to jail. In a way he was right. Rosa Parks refusing to sit at the back of the bus and the little rock nine who bravely choose the attend a desegregated school are now key parts of American history. Lastly King favored nonviolence because his goal was not to only legally gain equality but to truly get along with whites. Although a violent strategy could potentially work faster to gain legal equality it the tension between races would be