By the late 1960s, the civil rights movement had seen enormous successes along with tragic losses. Significant anti-discrimination legislation had been passed, but in the view of many civil rights activists, society had not changed enough. The civil rights movement itself was transforming, turning away from the nonviolence of Martin Luther King to a more militant stance epitomized by Malcolm X. Into this confusion, in 1968, Moody published her autobiography, Coming of Age in Mississippi. This startling depiction of what it was like to grow up a poor, southern African American captured the attention of Americans around the country, from all social classes and all backgrounds. Moody, intimately involved in the civil rights movement in the first half of 1960s, created an unforgettable image of the inequities and violence that characterized southern society.

Instead of focusing on her years in the civil rights movement, Moody chose to start at the beginning—when she was four years old, the child of poor sharecroppers working for a white farmer. In telling the story of her life, Moody shows why the civil rights movement was such a necessity and the depth of the injustices it had to correct; Moody's autobiography depicts the uphill battle that faced all southern African Americans. More than thirty years later, Moody's autobiography still retains the power it had for its first readers. Part of the book's long-lasting appeal is its basic humanity. Despite herself, Moody gets drawn into the fight for civil rights, knowing the challenge is incredibly difficult but knowing she has no other path to take.