Racial discrimination in the South was unbelievably brutal, and people treated innocent humans worse than livestock. This excessive amount of hate destroyed hearts and caused actions that were completely inhumane. How would it feel to know that death and pain was caused as a result to a person’s hatred and thoughtless work. After the civil war, African Americans were considered inferior to whites. They were completely disrespected, murdered, and lynched for one reason: their skin color. Natural rights were violated, and in some cases, taken away, due to the fact that a good amount of white people wanted to feel superior. To Kill a Mockingbird represents the larger society of the American South during this time period by connecting fictional …show more content…
Also, by creating a social class where African Americans are always on the bottom even when they are dealing with less respectable people, and contrasting characters, such as the Finches and Ewells, to demonstrate the amount of racial discrimination within the entire South throughout these difficult years for America. Fictional events, like the Tom Robinson case, have similar connections and features to events in history, such as the Scottsboro Trials and Emmett Till case. Harper Lee has used historical events as inspiration to give readers a vision of the lives of African Americans during this difficult time period. On page 282, Tom Robinson was found guilty at his trial, even though all facts and evidence that Atticus gave would have easily swayed the jury to be in favor of Robinson. This was because he was black, and in a …show more content…
In a society like Maycomb’s, rude and distrustful white people, like Bob Ewell, could easily have an advantage over African Americans simply because of the way the social pyramid is laid out. On page 101, Atticus and Scout discussed the future of the case, “‘Atticus, are we going to win it?’ ‘No, honey.’” The fact that Atticus was actually positive that he would not win the case, shows that the society truly believed that Tom Robinson actually raped Mayella Ewell, even without any information or evidence. The Ewell’s were the kind of people in the county that should never be trusted, but once they were put in a situation regarding a black man, suddenly they were the truthful ones. Furthermore, during a conversation with Calpurnia on page 164, Scout thought about how believable the Ewells were, “‘It’s because of what folks say Tom’s done,” she said… ‘Old Mr. Bob Ewell accused him of rapin’ his girl an’ had him arrested an’ put in jail…’ ‘Why, Atticus said they were absolute trash - I never heard Atticus talk about folks the way he talked about the Ewells…’” The Ewell family had the reputation of being terrible people, and even Atticus said that. However, a majority of people in town still thought Bob Ewell to be speaking the truth because he was accusing an African American, and they are always below everyone
Throughout the 1800s and early 1900s, racism was still a huge part in our society and this is demonstrated through the Scottsboro Trial and the novel To Kill a Mockingbird. The first place this is shown, was after everybody heard about the supposed rape of the white girls. There were protests and tons of people showing hate towards the black men. Another example of this, was all the assumptions white people made, that the only logical explanation for the incident was that the black men raped the white girls. This assumption was without listening to the evidence or facts proving the man's innocence during the trial.
Black men are six times as likely as white men to be incarcerated in federal prisons and local jails. This kind of injustice is the reason why cases like The Scottsboro Boys case, where nine boys were falsely accused of rape, exist. This is also why books like To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee are made. In both of these trials, they highlight the injustice of blacks during the 1930’s.
Miscarriages of Justice in To Kill a Mockingbird and The Scottsboro Boys Trials The purpose of the judicial system is to protect citizens by holding the perpetrator of any crime to the full extent of the law and ensure that justice is served. This is a very noble notion however, the justice system has not always upheld these principles. There are numerous accounts in which the justice system has not lived up to serving any justice at all. This was especially true during the horrific case of the Scottsboro Boys. Through the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee depicts various similarities between the key figures involved in the historical case of the Scottsboro Boys and characters in the novel such as the courageous lawyers who represented
This should have hinted to the judges that something was wrong with their testimonies but since they were white their testimonies were believed to be true. Price and Ewell also shared bad reputations in their towns. A neighbor of Price described her as being “a common street prostitute of the lowest type” (Linder, “Victoria Price”). Atticus described the Ewells as being “a disgrace to Maycomb for three generations. None of them had done an honest day of work in his recollection…they were people but they lived like animals” (Lee 20).
Additionally, agony was dealt with and misery happened behind the scenes of the slave’s lives, similar to Tom Robinson and the “Scottsboro Boys” in which both were African-American and how
In both of theses stories there is some precious stuff going on. In to kill a mockingbird Tom Robinson was accused of rape that he did not do, but because he was black he had got accused of it. In the report of Emmett Till Till was killed because he had want to the south to visit his family but he was killed because he was black. Emmett Till was innocent but because he had no wetness no one would have ever believed him in his point of view.
This novel came out just as people were fighting over school desegregation, and civil rights movements that sought to restore basic civil rights for African Americans. It was a time of group action in the United States during which African Americans and the NAACP’s objective was to fight racism, discrimination and racial segregation that denied them their fundamental and basic rights. Lee was inspired by a catalysing event that occurred in her hometown in the 1930s when she was only ten years old. The trial is famously known as the Scottsboro Boys Case, where nine young black boys were wrongfully convicted of a heinous crime. They were charged with raping two white girls on a train and were sentenced to the death penalty.
Caitlyn Crafts Barkes/Miller English 9B-4 14th February 2023 Most Writers will reference and use real-life events in their stories, whether a quick reference to an entire novel is based around a said event, writers will use this to hook a reader in and get them to reflect on their own life when reading. In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the infamous Scottsboro Boys' trials play a massive part in To Kill A Mockingbird and the existence of this trial helps play into the racism and unfairness of the trial in Harper's novel. The Scottsboro trail is about nine black boys being accused of rape by two white women, Ruby Bates and Victoria Price. Despite the accusation, there was no evidence that any of the boys had actually committed
Racism is an issue America has had difficulty solving for quite some time now. While its influence in the present day is significantly reduced, it still has its presence even then. For as long as African Americans have been in America, racism has had a gloomy presence in its society, and To Kill A Mockingbird reflected and challenged a system of racism back in its time, especially towards its black community. To Kill A Mockingbird mirrored its racism to its real-life counterpart and used a character to demonstrate how this was wrong.
Tom Robinson was a guilty man even before he even entered the courtroom; along with all the other African-Americans living in the south at that time. Even though it was obvious that he was innocent, due to the evidence pointed out by his lawyer, Atticus Finch, he was found guilty merely due to his race. It’s pretty obvious that the theme in “To Kill a Mockingbird” is racism and prejudice, and the discrimination of the African-American community was the most evidently shown. For example, the blacks were regarded as tools or objects to be used in labour, and were given very little, to basically no rights. Even in the trial, blacks and whites sat in separate sections, and all the members of the jury were white!
The 1930s was a time of depression and prejudice. The stock market plummeted and a majority of people lost their jobs. For this reason, men predominantly became drunks and abusive. African Americans were treated as second class citizens and their words did not mean as much as a caucasian 's words. Anyone who stood up for, or defended an African American was considered a “negro lover”, and also brought shame to his or her family.
WOW! To Kill A Mockingbird has been a popular book for many years. The reason for this is it brings out a main theme which was common back then and still happens now. The theme of racism is seen in the book mainly at Tom Robinson's trial. The Ewell family represents the pride that whites had for innocent blacks.
Most Americans 65% including majorities across racial and ethnic groups say it has become more common for people to express racism toward other ethnicities. Throughout this essay, there will be two examples of racism that will be discussed. Number one the Scottsboro trial and number 2 the To Kill A Mockingbird novel . These examples genuinely show the negative factors of racism.
Going back to To Kill a Mockingbird, one night when Tom Robinson was locked up in jail, a mob, composed of those who you would consider good people and model citizens, attempted to lynch him. If it weren't for Atticus Finch, Scout Finch's father and Tom's defense attorney, and his brave act of sitting in front of the jail doors to try and protect Tom Robinson from the mass of people who were in pursuit of him, and Scout's unknown wisdom infused words, the flock most likely would have killed Tom. Scout brought to perspective what these people were about to do in relation to their everyday lives. It made them consciously process what they were about to do and how it could affect their lives, and to not just follow the crowd. In my opinion this
Historical Paper The first historical event that influenced To Kill A Mockingbird was the Jim Crow laws. The Jim Crow laws perpetuated segregation. The Jim Crow laws were very appalling (Pilgrim). The Jim Crow laws were put in place to make blacks feel less important than whites (Pilgrim).