What Is Institutional Racism In To Kill A Mockingbird

The alleged rape victims in To Kill a Mockingbird and The Scottsboro Trials share similarities in their backgrounds, testimonies, and personalities. The events surrounding the Scottsboro case began on March 25, 1931. While on a train from Chattooga to Memphis, Nine boys allegedly raped Ruby Bates and Victoria Price (Linder, “The Trial of the ‘Scottsboro Boys’”).

On March 25, 1931 the lives of nine black teenagers changed after they were allegedly accused of being involved in a gang rape of two white females. This began when a fight broke out on a train after a white male named Orville Gilley stepped on the hand of a black male named Haywood Patterson who was hanging from the train itself (Linder, “The Trials of the Scottsboro Boys”). The white males involved went to a stationmaster to report the alleged assault which resulted with posse members coming to take the nine black males away. (Linder, “The Trials of the Scottsboro Boys”). Two white, female mill workers named Ruby Bates and Victoria Price also accused the nine black males to raping them.

Atticus Finch is a well respected lawyer in Maycomb County. However, many individuals in the community turn their back on Atticus when he plans to defend an African American man, Tom Robinson, in court. Taking place in Alabama during the 1930s, “To Kill A Mockingbird” accurately portrays the hostile environment for

The Scottsboro trials are a set of very famous trials, which lead directly after a group of African American boys got off a train with two white women. During the train ride the group of African American men gets in a fight with some White men and the white men end up getting thrown off the train. These White men would later testify against the African American men. It soon became evident that the two women might be in trouble with the law and so the group of nine African American boys became their scapegoat (Johnson). They accuse the men of raping them on the train.

This detail shows that something out-of-the-ordinary has taken place, and that the trial must have really made the jury stop and think about its next course of action. This is important because usually, the racial bias of the Jury makes this kind of case easy to decide, but this occasion was not as easily decided as it might have been. Atticus making the Jury think wasn’t even the first good thing to come out of his defense of Tom. that would happen the night before the trial, when Atticus stopped a mob from ending Tom’s life before the trial. “‘He in there, Mr. Finch?’

“Lemme tell you somethin’ now billy, you know the court appointed him to defend this nigger.” “Yeah but he aims to defend him. That’s what I don’t like about it.” (Lee, 165) This quote is purely just ignorance and prejudice, this quote is a good example of how most of the town feels, they are mad at atticus not for taking the case, but for actually trying to give Tom a fair trial.

23, P.295) In this quote, Atticus saying that there's just something about race that makes white people crazy. He also acknowledges, in case it wasn't already clear, that law is not pure realm free of the racial prejudices that plague everyday in life, it's subject to the same problems as society at large. Usually Atticus is a voice of hope for change the idea of racism, but here he flatly says that racism is a "fact of life," suggesting that losing Tom's case severely reduced his hopefulness concerning human nature, or else that, having sat through the

As shown, America had a serious case of racial inequality. To the point where a white man always won over a black man, no matter the case. The Caucasians felt superior over the Africans, and because they were so different, they felt the blacks were not even human. The following words are quoted from Atticus’s speech to the jury. “…evil assumption—that all Negroes lie, that all Negroes are basically immoral beings, that all Negro men are not to be trusted around our women…”

Mr. Robinson faces racism within the court and in town. Tom Robinson was fated to death even when he had lots of evidence proving his innocence. On page 323 it states, “ Tom was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed.” This shows everyone already made up their mind about Tom without listening to the evidence and Tom never even had a chance of surviving. Also, on page 323 the text says, “but in the secret courts of men's hearts Atticus had no case.”

During the jury voting, Jem could not believe his eyes, “ Judge Taylor was polling the jury: 'Guilty...guilty...guilty...guilty...' I peeked at Jem: his hands were white from gripping the balcony rail, and his shoulders jerked as if each "guilty" was a separate stab between them” (278). Watching Atticus try cases for years, he knows in court that justice prevails. He thought for sure that Tom was free, the evidence was crystal clear. He could not see what reasosn the jury had for a guilty verdict, but when the verdict came out as guilty, he was mad because he knew it was a racist verdict from the jury.

Atticus was given this case by the state, even though he is not the state's lawyer (for those that can't afford a lawyer). Mattress may claim that Atticus doesn’t lift a finger to try and help fight racism, but he is wrong. Atticus not only takes the case legally but also in a personal way. Mattress states that when asked about his motives for taking the case, “Atticus focus distinctly on himself,Not his client. he makes it clear several times that it is his own sense of personal rectitude and his need to be seen as virtuous by others that compel him to take Tom's case,”(Mattress 5).

Tom Robinson is likely the most substantial example of racial discrimination within the novel. Atticus comments, “In our courts, when it’s a white man’s word

In his closing speech to the jury Atticus expressed his perspective on Tom Robinson’s case and the prejudice against all black people. He explains to the jury “... some Negroes lie, some Negroes are immoral, some Negro men are not to be trusted around women—black or white. But this is a truth that applies to the human race and to no particular race of men…” (Lee, page 204). He believes all people make mistakes, everyone is human, and that no race is superior than another because of skin colour.

After Atticus loses his trial, Jem notices that the Maycomb County justice system is broken and it needs help, “Then it all goes back to the jury, then. We oughta do away with juries. ”(294) This shows that Jem now understands that people are racist in everything and racism needs to be fought. On top of realizing that the justice system is in shambles, Jem realized that Tom Robinson’s case was very good at showing that.

In the novel, racism is most prevalent when Atticus takes up a case where a African-American man has been accused of raping a white girl, and Atticus is fighting for Tom Robinson who is the accused rapist. Tom Robinson, the kindly, meek and physically disabled black accused of the rape, is the target of innumerable racial taunts and is regularly referred to by angry white town folks as a “nigger.” Later, in scenes involving Tom Robinson and the angry white mobs that aim to lynch him that reveal