(September 15, 1940- ) Born Essie Mae Moody in Wilkinson County, Mississippi. Educated at Natchez Junior College and Tougaloo (B.S., 1964). Worked for CORE as organizer (1961-63); participated in SNCC and CORE voter registration drives in Mississippi (1962-63), and 1963 Jackson, Mississippi, sit-in at Woolworth's lunch counter. After graduation from college, worked as civil rights project coordinator at Cornell (1964-65) and in New York City antipoverty programs (1967). Author of Coming of Age in Mississippi (1968), and Mr. Death: Four Stories (1975).