Between the years of 1954 to 1968, racism was at its peak in the South. This occurred even though the blacks were no longer slaves as of 1865 when slavery was abolished. The blacks were treated very poorly and they were still considered unequal to whites. Hiram, the main character of this novel, is a 9 year old boy who is clueless about racism. He is moved from the South to the North, away from his favorite grandfather. He wishes to go back to Mississippi and to be with his grandfather again. He never understood why his father, Harlan, wouldn't let him go. Hiram, who moved from Mississippi to Arizona, is in for a rude awakening when he is visiting his Grandfather in Greenwood, Mississippi at 16 years old. In the novel Mississippi Trial 1955, there were many complicated relationships among Hiram, Harlan, and Grandpa Hillburn. These relationships were complicated because of racism at …show more content…
this period in time, and their opinions towards the topic. At the age of 9, Hiram moved from Mississippi to Arizona.
Hiram and his Grandpa were so close that they both had a hard time parting from each other. Later, when coming back to Greenwood to visit at 16 years old, Hiram’s eyes opened to how blacks were treated when his acquaintance, R.C Rydell bullies a young black kid severely right in from of Hiram’s eyes. When Hiram says, “I could see where segregation wasn’t very fair”, it is clear to us how Hiram believes that blacks are and should be considered equal to whites. Hiram’s grandfather, however, has an opposing opinion. This is proven on page 11 when Grandpa says “Hiram, boy, I don't know what this country is coming to. Now these damn Yankees are trying to tell us how to run the South.” This quote is telling us that Grandpa believes that the blacks are trying to gain power over the whites when all they want is to be equal to them. Although Hiram and his Grandfather had different opinions, they still loved each other even after the trial where their opinions towards the death of Emmet Till caused their relationship to be in
jeopardy. Hiram and Harlan were distant and as time went by they simply drifted apart from each other more. Harlan, unlike his father, was a strong believer in black equality and was very much against discrimination. Harlan was such a strong believer that he went overboard trying to explain it to Hiram. This caused Hiram to drift away from his father as a child and teenager. On page 2, Hiram says “By the time I turned sixteen last July, I’d had it with Dad’s sermons and weirdness about hate, racism, equal rights, and all that. Funny thing was, the more he preached about the hate, the madder it made me.” At this point in the novel, we are taught that Hiram does not want to be around his father, especially when he is giving his lectures. Later in the story, after experiencing the dramatic events that involved Emmet Till like when R.C bullied him, Hiram realizes why his father was so determined to get these thoughts into Hiram’s head. Harlan, having these strong thoughts towards discrimination, segregation, and equality, did not want Hiram around Grandpa, who had a different opinion. To Hiram, Harlan became the “bad guy” for trying to separate him from someone he loved. Their relationship was improving when Hiram got back to Arizona because of they eye-openers from that summer. Harlan and Grandpa, although very much different, had one thing in common: the stubbornness they both shared with their opinions. Harlan hasn't spoken to his father much since he was 12 years old, the age when he became aware of how blacks were treated unfairly. On page 2, Hiram says “Dad and his dad, Grampa Hillburn, got along about as well as Hitler and Roosevelt.” Harlan disliked that Hiram was with his father too much because he did not want him to get his ideas on segregation. On page 3, Hiram says “Dad came home from the war, took one look at how tight I was with grandpa, another look at the South he hated, and used the G.I. Bill to go up to Ole Miss to get a master’s degree in English so he could land a college teaching job out west, far we from grandpa, from racism and prejudice, from hate.” Unfortunately, Harlan and his father never made up however, in their hearts, they respected and loved each other. In the novel “Mississippi Trial 1955,” there were complicated relationships among Hiram, Harlan, and Grandpa. These relationships were so complicated due to this topic, racism, and their opinions towards the topic. Although Hiram and his father (now) come to the same opinion towards discrimination, segregation, and black equality, Grandpa still and probably will never change his opinion even though the trial was a major part of the events that lead up to black equality. With all that occurred, opinions and all, the love for family and one another never ceased, even though it may have looked like it at times. We see the love shine through all on the final page of the novel when Hiram asks his father if he ever stopped loving Grandpa. He responded by saying “for a long time I thought I did, but then I realized that no matter how wrong or stubborn your father is, he’s still your father.”
The Scottsboro Trials, Brown v. Mississippi, and trial of Tom Robinson in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. The purpose of this essay is to compare three very similar cases, the Scottsboro Trials, Brown v. Mississippi, and the fictional trial of Tom Robinson in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird; and to prove why the defendant in the third trial never had a chance. Each took place in the rural South in the 1920’s and 30’s and involved the unfair conviction of young black males by all-white juries pressured by the threat of mob violence.
The Scottsboro and Maycomb trials took place in the 1930s, where the trials both have identical causes with the same conclusion, though its a tragedy event that happened however it have influenced the world today. The resemblance between Scottsboro and Maycomb leads the people into thinking about the Great Depression and the most infamous case that took place in Scottsboro, relating to Maycomb. Though there are no reasonable causes or hateful affairs between opposing characters, yet it seems like racism between white and the Afro-Americans had started the conflict. Coming to a white vs Afro-American cases, the jurors would always favor the white over the Afro-American for they believe its not right to do such thing as acquitting the Afro-American due to their old-fashion values and prejudiced mind. Such tragedy happening in the history has influenced the world today in many ways, the novel To Kill a Mockingbird is one project that’s inspired to be written. Though both Scottsboro and Maycomb seems like a loving town with nice people, however their dark sides are discovered through their actions.
Investigating the similarities between the Scottsboro case and Tom Robinson’s trail, the first major parallel the shadow of lynching that menaces the accused in both. The threat of lynching occurs in the novel when after Tom Robinson is transported to the Maycomb city jail. That night a mob of people from nearby community called Old Sarum gather around the jail in an attempt to abduct him. This type of behavior is by all means very plausible for this time period. In a nearly identical event, as to that in the novel, on a cold night in 1931 after the Scottsboro boys were sentenced a scene right out of To Kill a Mockingbird seemed to come to life. That night Dan T. Carter, the court historian, accounts, “ farmers from the nearby hills began gathering, and by dusk a crowd of several hundred stood in front of the two-story jail.” (Carter 7) Just like the Old Sarum mob most of these people were poor white farmers seeking the blood of a black man. The connection of the southern society’s feeling toward a black man committing a crime against a while f...
Sometimes, people discriminate one thing, but strongly oppose the discrimination of another thing. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, this issue is very much expressed throughout the story. This thought-provoking story takes place in Maycomb, Alabama during a time when there’s a rape trial against a falsely accused African American named Tom Robinson. There is also a discrimination, of sorts, towards a man named Boo Radley, by three young children named Jeremy “Jem” Finch, Jean Louise “Scout” Finch, and Charles “Dill” Baker Harris. Both Boo Radley and Tom Robinson are similar in their own ways through their inherent goodness.
Mississippi serves as a catalyst for the realization of what it is truly like to be a Negro in 1959. Once in the state of Mississippi, Griffin witnesses extreme racial tension, that he does not fully expect. It is on the bus ride into Mississippi that Griffin first experiences true racial cruelty from a resident of Mississippi.
Throughout history, racism has played a major role in social relations. In Harper Lee's novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, this theme is presented to the reader and displays the shallowness of white people in the south during the depression. The assumption that Blacks were inferior is proved during the trial of Tom Robinson. Such characteristics served to justify the verdict of the trial. In this trial, Tom Robinson is accused of raping Mayella Ewell and is found guilty.
The dominating theme of racial discrimination is clearly evident throughout the book. Unfortunately, the society itself is the ultimate cause of such dilemma. Maycomb County is segregated into the hardworking, honest black people, and the privileged and prejudiced white people. The long hold racist attitude towards the black people are unforgiving as they have not been recognised as human beings, and are treated inhumanely. When Tom Robinson; a respectful black man is wrongfully accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, Atticus is assigned to fight for Tom in the trial. Due to Atticus being a white man ...
The Mississippi Summer Project also known as the Freedom Summer, took place in the summer of 1964. It was organized with the help of the NAACP, SNCC, CORE and Robert Moses. The purpose of the Freedom Summer was to increase African American voting registration in the state of Mississippi. One of their main goals was to organize the Freedom Democratic Party. They hoped to challenge the white-only Mississippi Democratic Party, and set up Freedom Schools, with the intent to open community centers to African Americans seeking medical and legal assistance.
In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, many different themes come into view. One major theme that played a big role in the character’s lives is racial prejudice. Racism is an unending problem throughout the book. The song “Message from a Black Man” by The Temptations has many similarities to the theme of racial discrimination. Therefore, both the novel and the song prove that racism was a great obstacle for some people at a point.
Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird portrayed an era of extreme prejudice and ignorance. Throughout the novel, these specific characteristics were noticed in the behavior of Maycomb’s residents, especially during the trial of Tom Robinson – a highly publicized court case involving a black man convicted of raping a white girl from a despicable family. Although it became obvious throughout the trial that Robinson was innocent, and the girl’s father was the real culprit, Tom Robinson was convicted mainly due to social prejudice toward his race. The unjust result of this trial deeply disturbed the main characters of the novel: Scout and Jem, the children of the defense attorney of the trial, Atticus Finch. Since the story took place in the 1930s, racism was still widely accepted in society, and most of the residents in Maycomb openly professed their derogatory views on people of a different race or social standard. Growing up in a family that believed in egalitarianism, Scout and Jem faced backlash from the community since their father was fighting for a black man in the Tom Robinson trial. Amid these two highly conflicting environments, Scout and Jem had many unanswered questions and no support in the community during these tough times. Additionally, the Maycomb community was plagued with injustice due to discrimination and racism. However, there was one character in the novel who remained open-minded and unprejudiced even in the face of tradition and communal ignorance. A close neighbor of the Finch’s, who shared the same moral views as Atticus, Miss Maudie served as a mother figure to young Scout and Jem, who were going through a tough time in the community. Although Miss Maudie may not have had enough power to change the prejudice...
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.
...judice towards blacks and other minorities was nothing odd during the 1930's. The protagonist of the story, Cassie, first experiences an example of racial tension when she notices a drinking fountain and cannot drink from it because it is "White Only". Another example of prejudice occurs when Suzella, who looks white but is actually half white and half black, gets attention from many white boys. However, when the boys find out that Suzella is partially black, they stay away from her. Lastly, society's hatred towards blacks displays itself when a young boy named T.J. Avery is falsely accused of robbing a store. T.J.'s imminent conviction shows us that the judicial system, the one thing that should defend people's rights can be warped according to the way society wants it to be it to be. Therefore, we can conclude that prejudice is yet another manifestation of hatred.
Mississippi Trial 1955 Written by Chris Crowe is about a young boy named Hiram. Hiram spent many years of his childhood in the town of Greenwood, Mississippi, which he saw as peaceful and equal. His father and grandfather have very different opinions on the racism and segregation of the south. Hiram discovered the truth once he came back after nine years when a murder of a young African American boy rocks Mississippi.
Hiram Hillburn is in for quite a shock as he returns to his childhood home in Greenwood Mississippi. There is a difficult choice for Hiram, between his father’s opinion on civil rights and
The narrator in the short story “The Scarlet Ibis” refuses to accept his brother, Doodle, despite their close, familial ties. Doodle was different than the narrator, so he was treated as if he was less than those around him. In the eye opening novel A Lesson Before Dying a black man named Jefferson faces racial discrimination within the justice system. Like Doodle, he is thought to be less than the people in his town, for they had lighter skin.