AN INTRODUCTION TO HARPER LEE’STO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

By: Nancy MacDonald

SETTING

Place: Maycomb,

ALABAMA

Time: Early 1930’s during the Great Depression

Main CharactersScout (Jean Louise Finch) – six-year-old narrator of story

Jem (Jeremy Finch) – her older brother

Atticus Finch – Jem and Scout’s father, a prominent lawyer who defends a black man accused of raping a white woman

Arthur (Boo) Radley – a thirty-three-year-old recluse who lives next door

Charles Baker (Dill) Harris – Jem and Scout’s friend who comes to visit his aunt in Maycomb each summer

Tom Robinson – a respectable black man accused of raping a white woman

Calpurnia – the Finches’ black cook

Social Class in the Novel

Wealthy

Country Folk

"White Trash"

Black

Community

This is probably similar to how class structure existed during the 1930’s in the South. The wealthy, although fewest in number, were most powerful. The blacks, although great in number, were lowest on the class ladder, and thus, had the least privileges.

Examples of each social class:

Wealthy - Finches

Country Folk - Cunninghams

“White Trash” – Ewells

Black Community – Tom Robinson

Wealthy

Country Folk

"White Trash"

Black

Community

The Roaring 20’s The new concept of

“credit”

People were buying:

Automobiles

Appliances

Clothes

Fun times reigned

Dancing

Flappers

Drinking

Why was this bad?

Credit system People didn’t really have

the money they were spending.

WWI

The U.S. was a major credit loaner to other nations in need.

Many of these nations could not pay us back.

The Stock Market

People bought stocks on margins If a stock is $100 you

can pay $10 now and the rest later when the stock rose

Stocks fall Now the person has

less than $100 and no money to pay back

And then…. With people panicking

about their money investors tried to sell their stocks This leads to a huge decline

in stocks

Stocks were worthless now People who bought on

“margins” now could not pay

Investors were average people that were now broke

Farmers were already feeling the effects Prices of crops went down

Many farms foreclosed

People could not afford luxuries Factories shut down

Businesses went out

Banks could not pay out money

People could not pay their taxes Schools shut down due to lack of funds

Many families became homeless and had to live in shanties

Many waited in unemployment lines hoping for a job.

People in cities would wait in line for bread to bring to their family.

Some families were forced to relocate because they had no money.

“Hooverville”

Some families were forced to live in shanty towns

A grouping of shacks and tents in vacant lots

They were referred to as “Hooverville” because of President Hoover’s lack of help during the depression.

Major Historical Happenings...

Jim Crow Laws

Scottsboro Trials

Recovering from the Great Depression

Racial Injustice

Poor South

Jim Crow Laws

After the American Civil War most states

in the South passed anti-African

American legislation. These became

known as Jim Crow laws.

These laws included segregation in…

Schools -- Hospitals

Theaters -- Water fountains

Restaurants

Hotels

Public transportation

Some states forbid inter-racial marriages

9 young African-American men (13-20) accused of raping 2 white girls in 1931

Immediately sentenced to death

Trials went on for nearly 15 years before all the men were dismissed

Started on a train bound for Memphis

Several white men boarded and picked a fight with the black men

Whites were forced off train by the 12 black men. The white men reported the black men had raped two white girls on the train to authorities.

They were immediately arrested and tried in front of an all-white jury.

22

Scottsboro Case

The Trial

April 6, 1931 – April 9, 1931

Witnesses

Price and Bates

One white man (collaborated)

Nine African-American men

Acquaintance of women (did not collaborate)

Physician

Eight of nine men sentenced to death

23

Scottsboro Case

Trial Continues November 7, 1932 United States Supreme

Court orders new trial

March 27, 1933 the new trial begins

Famous New York defense attorney Samuel S. Leibowitz

Two physicians refute that multiple rapes occurred

Ruby Bates openly denies rapes occurred

April 9, 1933 first defendant found guilty

Judge James Horton overturns conviction

April 1, 1935 United States Supreme Court reversed all convictions

Scottsboro Case New trials ordered – the defendants did not have

adequate legal representation. Horton overturned verdict on the grounds that the

evidence presented did not warrant conviction Later in 1933 2nd defendant found guilty –

execution delayed pending appeal Convictions reversed on grounds that qualified

African-Americans had been systematically excluded from all juries in Alabama

None of the men are executed; however, a number remained on death row for many years. The case was not settled until 1976 with the pardon of the last of the Scottsboro defendants.

The Jim Crow laws were instituted in 1896 and were not abolished till the late 1950’s (even then still not completely).

26

Parallels Between Scottsboro and Tom Robinson Trials

1930s 1930s

Northern Alabama Southern Alabama

Rape charge by white women

against African-American men

Rape charge by a white woman

against an African-American man

Poor white status of accusers a

critical issue

Poor white status of Mayella a

critical issue

Central figure is a heroic judge Central figure is Atticus, who

defends an African-American

man

Judge goes against public

sentiment

Atticus arouses anger in

community defending Robinson

Jury ignores evidence ??????

Scottsboro Trial Tom Robinson’s Trial

"Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."