Discrimination In To Kill A Mockingbird

Segregation has played a substantial role throughout American history. Many court cases and different trials in different time periods have proven that a person’s skin color can dictate many things, such as where they go to school and where they sit on public transportation. The struggle to achieve equality was made even more difficult by the legislation of the Plessy vs. Ferguson case.

The Plessy versus Ferguson case originated the term “separate but equal.” In order for this idea to be constitutional, there has to be equal facilities for each race, though they can be separate. In 1890, Homer Plessy refused to sit in a Jim Crow car on a train, and ,because he was uncooperative, he was then arrested and later taken to court to face Judge John

Tom Robinson is a hard-working African American in the town of Maycomb, Alabama. However, his life takes a tragic turn when he is accused of raping Mayella Ewell, daughter of the town’s least respected citizen, Tom Ewell. When he goes to court , even with the very capable Atticus Finch as his lawyer, his future looks grim. Regardless of the information that Tom Robinson and Atticus had provided that proved Tom as innocent, he was still found guilty. The reader can then conclude that the only explanation for this is that Tom Robinson was guilty not of rape, but of his being black. During the trial, Atticus states that, “She was white, and she tempted a Negro. She did something that in our society is unspeakable: she kissed a black man. Not an old uncle, but a strong young Negro man. No code mattered to her before she broke it, but it comes crashing down on her afterwards.” Atticus also states that, "Which, gentlemen, we know is in itself a lie as black as Tom Robinson's skin, a lie I do not have to point out to you. You know the truth, and the truth is this: 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. There is not a person in this courtroom who has never told a lie, who has never done an immoral thing, and there is no man living who has never looked upon a

On September 4, 1957, Bates led the nine students into the school. Protestors were outside of the school screaming and spitting at the students as they walked by. The governor, Orval Faubas, even sent the Arkansas National Guard with orders to surround the building and not allow the African American students to enter the school. Despite the obstacles that these students faced, they started classes on September 25, 1957, facing down threats of violence. Academic segregation still occurs