Racial Injustice in To Kill a Mockingbird

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.

The paradigm of southern womanhood was a matter of great importance to the people of the early 20th century South. So important was the institution of southern womanhood to the culture at the time when they were willing to lie, and even kill to protect it. Such is the case in To Kill a Mockingbird¸ when Mayella Ewell lies about Tom Robinson raping her to ensure that she is not looked down upon, as anyone known to be consorting with a black man would have been. Atticus illustrates his disgust with this situation when he says he is “in favor of Southern womanhood as much as anybody, but not for preserving polite fiction at the expense of human life” ...

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...tional stage with the Scottsboro trials, which became the inspiration for Harper Lee’s burning expeditionary work of fiction, To Kill a Mockingbird, in which she employs a tone critical of racism. The two cases, fictional and real, shared many stunning similarities, such as the preservation of southern womanhood and police brutality, as well as minor differences such as the attitudes of the accusers. The great tragedy of both cases is best exemplified by Atticus Finch’s declaration that “this case should never have come to trial. This case is as simple as black and white” (Lee 271).

Works Cited

Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. New York : Grand Central Publishing, 1960. Print.

Ransdell, Hollace. “The First Sottsboro Trials.” UMKC School of Law. n.d. Web. 7 February 2012.

“Scottsboro Trials.” Encyclopedia of Alabama. 2 December 2011. Web. 7 February 2012.