Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Coming of Age in Mississippi, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Intersection of Racism and Poverty
Loss of Innocence
The Importance of Community
Gender and Racism
Religion and Hypocrisy
Summary
Analysis
In late August, Anne attends the March on Washington. She rides up to Washington in an integrated car with Ed King and his wife, anxious about what would happen. On August 28, they arrive at the Washington Monument and join the march, singing freedom songs. At the end of the March at the Lincoln Memorial, Anne hears Martin Luther King, Jr. give his “I Have a Dream” speech. She is skeptical about this speech, noting how the people of Canton “never ha[ve] time to sleep, much less to dream.”
The March on Washington is one of the most famous historical events in the memoir and had a huge impact on the advancement of the civil rights movement. Anne’s skepticism at King’s speech, however, indicates her overall skepticism at a movement that is focused on a dream rather than the everyday realities of Black people in the South. The moment reinforces that Anne is a practically-minded activist.
Themes
Anne drives back to Canton with the Kings and Joan Trumpauer. She reflects upon the March and upon being away from the Movement in Mississippi for the first time in over a year. She worries about the trip back through the Southern states, being the only Black person in an integrated car. The group spends the night in a campground in Tennessee. Anne realizes that Ed King carefully planned this, hoping that the group might avoid harassment on federal land. Anne is angry at herself for “forcing [her] white friends to sleep in a park because [she] is black.” The next morning, two white women see Joan and Anne in the shower and go looking around their car. Assuming that Anne is Joan’s maid, the white women leave them alone.
The solidarity that the Kings and Joan show towards Anne exemplifies the fact that interracial cooperation was an essential part of the civil rights movement. The extra consideration that the group must undergo simply to find somewhere to stay illustrates how deeply racist violence was embedded into the fabric of society. The fact that the white women leave the group alone once they presumably assume that Anne is Joan’s maid illustrates the rigid social conventions of the South.
Themes
