Coming of Age in Mississippi by Anne Moody

come?” he pleaded. As he did, Sister Jones started singing and all the other sisters joined her. I turned around and looked at Mama and she had tears running out of her eyes. Even Adline looked like she was about to cry.
    “Come to Je-e-sus,
    “Come to Je-e-sus,
    “Come to Je-e-sus right now,” they all sang.
    “He will
sa-a-ve
you,” Reverend Tyson sang as he walked back toward the pulpit.
    “He will
sa-a-ve
you
    “He will
sa-a-ve
you
    “He will
sa-a-ve
you ri-i-ght now,” the whole church sang.
    Reverend Tyson reached the pulpit and turned to the audience.
    “Will everybody stand?” he said, motioning with his arms. Everybody stood, continuing to sing “Come to Jesus.” Out of all the voices, Sister Jones’s was the only one I heard.
    “All the
Christians
, I want you to sit down!” Reverend Tyson shouted over the singing voices. “And all the
sinners
, I want you to remain standing! Now don’t you
lie
to the Lord!”
    People started sitting down.
    “If you are a
sinner, repent
tonight! Stand up and let me
see
who you are!”
    Come to Je-e-sus
,
    Come to Je-e-sus
,
    Come to Je-e-sus right now
.
    It seemed like I was floating in the air and I had lost sight of where I was. Something was behind me, pushing me. All I could hear was Sister Jones’s singing and Reverend Tyson saying, “Will you come, will you come tonight?” I could feel myself moving and I didn’t know where I was going or what I was doing. I didn’t see anybody.
    When everything was quiet and the singing had stopped, I looked around and saw that I was standing right in the front row of the church, at the mourner’s bench, with a few other candidates for baptism. I was standing face-to-face with Reverend Tyson.
    “What’s your name, young lady?” he asked gently.
    “Essie Mae Moody,” I stuttered.
    “Speak up, young lady. Tell the Lord your name.”
    “Essie Mae Moody,” I said, a little bit louder.
    “You want to become a member of this church, Sister Moody?” he asked.
    I didn’t say yes. I just nodded my head.
    “Brothers,” he said solemnly, “do we accept Sister Moodyas a candidate for baptism to become a member of this church?”
    “Brother pastor,” said Deacon Brown, standing near us, “we accept Sister Moody as a candidate to be baptized into Mount Pleasant Church on the second Sunday of next month.”
    When Reverend Tyson finished with the last candidate, he motioned us to return to our seats. I hesitated. I didn’t want to go back there to face Mama. When I realized that I was standing there by myself, I turned around and walked slowly back. As I came up to Mama, I didn’t even look at her. I just stumbled into the row and sat down. Adline leaned over and said in a loud whisper, “You joined church!”
    Then I looked at Mama. When she smiled at me, I felt like killing her and Sister Jones both.
    During the next few weeks I hardly spoke to Mama at all. Since I had threatened to run away before baptism, I didn’t have to avoid her, she was avoiding me. She was so pleased that I had joined Mount Pleasant that she was scared to say anything that would make me mad enough to really run off.
    Baptism at Mount Pleasant was the biggest event of the year. Some people saved all year to buy a new outfit. Mama got busy planning what we both would wear. She went to the one store in Centreville that gave credit to Negroes and got a gray fall suit and a pair of shoes for herself. The candidates for baptism had to wear all white so Mama had a white dress made for me and bought me a blue one for after baptism. When she said that the white dress symbolized that I was entering the church pure and the blue one meant that I would always be true and faithful to the church, I felt more than ever like running away.
    Saturday, the day before baptism, it rained. I had hoped it would flood so that baptism would be called off, but it didn’t rain that hard. On Sunday morning, baptism day, I got up andthe rain had stopped. I was