To Kill A Mockingbird Looking Past Prejudice

Looking Past Prejudice: How Justice Can Be Served
In the 1930’s a plethora of prejudiced persons are present amidst the prominent Scottsboro trials, a seven-year-long case consisting of false rape allegations made against nine black boys from Scottsboro. When citizens fail to acknowledge their own preconceived ideas and look past the prejudice present in society, justice cannot be served. In the Scottsboro case, the court of Alabama disregards the societal issues surrounding racial discrimination and endorses the guilty verdict and conviction of the nine African American boys. Failing to look past their own personal biases, the jury ignores the unquestionable evidence that would support the boys’ case. Instead, the jury focuses on their predilection for protecting white womanhood, supporting the case of Victoria Price

Even though the lives’ of Victoria and Ruby completely breach both Southern lady demeanor and the ideals of segregation, society instantly labels them as innocent white women when they accuse black men of rape. The black man's alleged uncontrollable sexual craving for the white women poses a threat to white Southern culture. The jury, composed entirely of white Southerners, can’t look past these preconceived notions, as the protection of white womanhood is the heart of their culture. In fact, most of the five thousand lynching cases of 1880 to 1940 involve black men accused of the rape or sexual assault of a white woman. The feeling that white women need protection from black men is merely one part of the prejudice white men have concerning different races, but one part that prevents justice from being served to the nine Scottsboro boys in the court of law. In addition, the jury fails to recognize the disabilities and special circumstances that would prohibit some of the men from being physically able to commit the crime because of their racial prejudice. As the documentary explains, “Two of them