To Kill A Mockingbird Jim Crow Laws Essay

1015 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: How does harper lee present racial prejudice in to kill a mocking bird

Jim Crow laws have impacted the past but america has come a long way. Even though there are still racist people, every race has equal rights. Jim Crow laws were effective during the early to mid 1900s and were the main reason for African Americans being segregated. In Harper Lee’s fictional novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, the audience is subjected to the harsh impact of Jim Crow in Maycomb, Alabama through which the innocent narrator, Scout Finch, struggles to understand the justification for such biased laws. By evaluating the impact of Jim Crow laws on black rights in America during the time period of the novel and present day, it is revealed that the influence of these laws have little effect to black rights today. In the 1930s, when Jim …show more content…

It's hard to explain—ignorant, trashy people use it when they think somebody's favoring Negroes over and above themselves. It's slipped into usage with some people like ourselves, when they want a common, ugly term to label somebody (pg.112). Nigger-lover was being used as an ugly term to label somebody. That means that liking black people was a bad thing and this shows that the African Americans were treated unfairly during this time. An article from Fordham University states “Smångs, assistant professor of sociology and anthropology, studied hundreds of lynchings in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, focusing on those that were public and ritualistic. By defining white identity in terms of a threat that black people supposedly presented, these lynchings paved the way for repressive Jim Crow laws.” During this time, African Americans were seen as a threat to whites. That’s why Jim Crow laws were developed. Jim Crow laws were in effect during the 1930s. “I seen that black nigger yonder ruttin' on my Mayella!”(pg.175). Mr.Ewell would not have the same reaction if that person was white, that’s why he says “that black nigger.” This shows that African Americans did not have the rights that whites did and Jim Crow laws were still in effect.

Show More
Related

  • Jim Crow Laws Essay

    715 Words  | 2 Pages

    Equality is something that should be given to every human and not earned or be taken away. However, this idea does not present itself during the 1930’s in the southern states including Alabama. African Americans faced overwhelming challenges because of the thought of race superiority. Therefore, racism in the southern states towards African Americans made their lives tough to live because of disparity and inhumane actions towards this particular group of people.

    Read More

  • Mass Incarceration In The Age Of Colorblindness By Michelle Alexander

    2147 Words  | 5 Pages

    Today, more African American adults are under correctional control than were enslaved in 1850, a decade before the Civil War began (Alexander 180). Throughout history, there have been multiple racial caste systems in the United States. In her book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Michelle Alexander defines a “racial caste” as “a racial group locked into an inferior position by law and custom” (12). Alexander argues that both Jim Crow and slavery functioned as racial caste systems, and that our current system of mass incarceration functions as a similar caste system, which she labels “The New Jim Crow”. There is now a silent Jim Crow in our nation. Mass incarceration today serves the same function as did slavery before the Civil War and Jim Crow laws after the Civil War - to uphold a racial caste system.

    Read More

  • What Is Mob Mentality In To Kill A Mockingbird

    856 Words  | 2 Pages

    The first influence on Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is the Jim Crow laws. The Jim Crow laws are laws that took place in between 1877 to the mid 1960s (Pilgrim). These laws are of segregation between blacks and whites to give blacks fewer rights. Christians and Ministers believed that Whites were the chosen people; Blacks were lesser people and only suppose to be servants, and that God Supported Ra

    Read More

  • Jim Crow Law Essay

    759 Words  | 2 Pages

    Danny Thiemann Mrs. Fleetwood English I-C 13 April 2014 Separate but not equal Does the name Jim Crow ring a bell? Neither singer nor actor, but actually the name for the Separate but Equal (Jim Crow) Laws of the 1900s. Separate but Equal Laws stated that businesses and public places had to have separate, but equal, facilities for minorities and Caucasian people. Unfortunately, they usually have different levels of maintenance or quality.

    Read More

  • To Kill A Mockingbird Essay On Racial Equality

    700 Words  | 2 Pages

    America has always been a country with different cultures, races, and people. Only, not everyone has been accepting of different kinds of people. A persons thoughts on another person can differ depending on a person's race, gender, or age. In Harper Lee’s, To Kill a Mockingbird, racial equality is nonexistent. The African Americans were treated like they weren’t people, and were totally isolated from the Maycomb, Alabama society. America will never achieve true racial and social equality because people are ignorant, have a history of being prejudiced, and are unjust.

    Read More

  • Racism in American Schools

    778 Words  | 2 Pages

    Even though extraordinary changes have been made in the past to achieve racial equality, America is still racist, especially in schools. In the novel, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” written by Harper Lee, Atticus Finch is criticized for defending a black man accused of raping a white woman. During the 1930s, the time this novel took place, America was a very segregated country. At the time when Harper Lee wrote "To Kill a Mockingbird," America was fighting a civil rights movement. The events of racism in “To Kill a Mockingbird” reflect the time period.

    Read More

  • Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird

    1363 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the early twentieth century, the United States was undergoing a dramatic social change. Slavery had been abolished decades before, but the southern states were still attempting to restrict social interaction among people of different races. In particular, blacks were subject to special Jim Crow laws which restricted their rights and attempted to keep the race inferior to whites. Even beyond these laws, however, blacks were feeling the pressure of prejudice. In the legal system, blacks were not judged by a group of their peers; rather, they were judged by a group of twelve white men. In serious court cases involving capital offenses, the outcome always proved to be a guilty verdict. In Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, the plot revolves around a Depression-era court case of a black man accused of raping a white woman. The defendant Tom Robinson is presumed guilty because of one thing alone: the color of his skin.

    Read More

  • Essay On Jim Crow Law

    638 Words  | 2 Pages

    According to americanhistory.si.edu there was a law in Nebraska in 1911 that stated “Marriages are void when one party is a white person and the other is possessed of one-eighth or more negro, Japanese, or Chinese blood.” Laws like these were harsh on African Americans and this law was passed as Jim Crow Laws were coming to an end. These weren’t just laws to the people of that time, they were a way of life. The Jim Crow Laws undermined multiple amendments and through the Unite States into turmoil and riots.

    Read More

  • Racial Injustice in To Kill a Mockingbird

    1321 Words  | 3 Pages

    In a desperate attempt to save his client, Tom Robinson, from death, Atticus Finch boldly declares, “To begin with, this case should never have come to trial. This case is as simple as black and white” (Lee 271). The gross amounts of lurid racial inequality in the early 20th century South is unfathomable to the everyday modern person. African-Americans received absolutely no equality anywhere, especially not in American court rooms. After reading accounts of the trials of nine young men accused of raping two white women, novelist Harper Lee took up her pen and wrote To Kill a Mockingbird, a blistering exposition of tragic inequalities suffered by African Americans told from the point of view of a young girl. Though there are a few trivial differences between the events of the Scottsboro trials and the trial of Tom Robinson portrayed in To Kill a Mockingbird, such as the accusers’ attitudes towards attention, the two cases share a superabundance of similarities. Among these are the preservation of idealist views regarding southern womanhood and excessive brutality utilized by police.

    Read More

  • To Kill A Mockingbird Rhetorical Analysis Essay

    1246 Words  | 3 Pages

    As the American people’s standards and principles has evolved over time, it’s easy to forget the pain we’ve caused. However, this growth doesn’t excuse the racism and violence that thrived within our young country not even a century previous. This discrimination, based solely on an ideology that one’s race is superior to another, is what put many people of color in miserable places and situations we couldn’t even imagine today. It allowed many Caucasian individuals to inflict pain, through both physical and verbal attacks, and even take away African Americans ' God given rights. In an effort to expose upcoming generations to these mass amounts of prejudice and wrongdoing, Harper Lee 's classic novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, tells the story of

    Read More

  • To Kill A Mockingbird Symbolism Essay

    1437 Words  | 3 Pages

    In 1960, a novel was written to outline injustices and racism against those who were innocent, though unfairly judged because of social expectations and prejudiced beliefs. This novel not only presented these issues, but is also considered a revolutionary piece of literature, still being read by many people today, more than 50 years later. The novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, has caused some controversy about the intents of the book and the way certain people or groups are presented. Whether To Kill a Mockingbird as a narrative outshines the issue it presents is a debatable argument. However, I believe that the narrative of the novel supports the concerns exhibited for numerous reasons. In what follows, some of these are presented: the historical

    Read More

  • Importance Of Justice In To Kill A Mockingbird

    1038 Words  | 3 Pages

    People are responsible for acting according to their conscience. The justice system was created in order to be our aid in making moral and ethical decisions, but when the Justice system fails, we should still be able to follow our conscience to make the right the decision. In Harper Lee’s novel “To Kill a Mockingbird,” one of the characters, Atticus Finch, helps not only characters in the book, but the readers, understand that the legal system does not always serve justice, in fact, the legal system only is as moral and just as the community it serves. In the town of Maycomb, just like many towns in the American south during the 1930s, racism as a personal feeling and racism as a cultural, legal, and economic institution are practically one

    Read More

  • Essay On Discrimination In To Kill A Mockingbird

    894 Words  | 2 Pages

    "Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilized by education; they grow there, firm as weeds among stones"- Charlotte Brontë. Nearly every problem and unfortunate mishap in Harper Lee's, To Kill A Mockingbird, has been somehow revolved around prejudice or discrimination. Many different forms of prejudice are found throughout the novel, with racism, sexism, and classicism the most common. The residents of Maycomb have discrimination running through their veins and were raised to be racist and sexist, without realizing. They see nothing wrong with judging other people and treating people that they find inferior harshly. Prejudice is a destructive force because it separates the people of Maycomb, both physically and mentally.

    Read More

  • The History Of Lynching

    1473 Words  | 3 Pages

    Due to the past history of racial tension and lynching, black journalist and activist associate lynching with white on black violence. If you google “lynchings today,” the top five links are about black people being lynched. Today America has practiced using new and old ways of lynching. In the 21st century people are still be lynched for crimes they committed. Hate crimes involving lynching have died down a lot since the 20th century and so has the activity of the notorious Ku Klux Klan. Lynching was a punishment system designed to prevent a rape culture from spreading and help protect white women from being raped. However, over the years this punishment formed into a racial tension that increased as years went by. During the 20th century black activists and journalist such as Ida B. Wells documented every lynching in the United States to show the people what is happening behind closed curtains in the south. Wells stressed the importance of recording these numbers into something called “Lynch Law.” In this documentation Wells numbers the amount of black people being lynched in different states. You can tell the difference in demographic areas were lynching occurred more frequently; while New York only had 1, Tennessee had 28. The numbers vary from state to state, based on where they were located on the map. Wells’ “Lynch Law,” shows that the further down south you go the more frequent lynchings happen toward black

    Read More

  • To Kill A Mockingbird Essays: Discrimination and Prejudice

    1388 Words  | 3 Pages

    Discrimination and Prejudice in Killing A Mocking Bird Discrimination and prejudice were very common acts in the early and middle 1900's. Prejudice in this book is displayed by the acts of hate and misunderstanding because of someone's color. People of color were the majority that were treated unfairly. During this time in the southern states, black people had to use separate bathrooms, drinking fountains, sections in restaurants, churches, and even go to separate schools. Although much of the discrimination was directed towards blacks, there were plenty of accounts towards impoverished families by those that had money.

    Read More

More about To Kill A Mockingbird Jim Crow Laws Essay

Open Document