When a case is with a black and a white the white always wins. Black men from the Scottsboro Trials in 1931-1948 were sent to prison and executed because they were accused of rape. “Eight of the nine men got executed and the ninth could not because he was to young” (The Scottsboro Trials, The First Trial).
The Scottsboro boys trial and the Tom Robinson trial in To Kill a Mockingbird are similar for these reasons. Mayella Ewell represents Victoria Price and Ruby Bates because Mayella made the crowd fell bad for her because she was a white, shy, and an unstable women. I think Lee kept these details the same because in the Scottsboro trial Price and Bates were the ones “raped”, and in the Robinson trial Mayella was the one “raped”. As I said Price and Bates are being represented by Mayella in the Robinson trial. Another similarity was that both trails were about rape.
Imagine that your living in the 1930s, you’re a white woman, and you had just gotten “raped” by a black man or group of black men. This exact scenario happened in the critically acclaimed book To Kill a Mockingbird and in the real-life court case deemed the Scottsboro trial. Which in both the book and the court case, the characters, and people were shaped and influenced by society to become victims and accusers. This paper is going compare and contrast how the fictional character Mayella and the non-fictional plaintiff Victoria Price and Ruby Bates as painted victims and accusers by society.
Harper Lee´s life is similar to the character Scout from To Kill A Mockingbird. The Scottsboro trial was occurring when Harper Lee was growing up, and the Tom Robinson case was occurring when Scout was growing up. Harper Lee used lots of her family names for names for people for To Kill A Mockingbird. Harper Lee and Scout were both tomboys and both a had boy bestfriend.
In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, one can see that it is a novel that has been written based on some real life events that have accorded. The real world influence of the Scottsboro trials influenced Harper Lee to write to To Kill A Mockingbird. During this times period, many things were very similar but at the same time very different. There are many ways that the Scottsboro Trials and To Kill a Mockingbird are relatable, because of many real life events that have occurred. At the time of both blacks and whites were separated.
Most Americans 65% including majorities across racial and ethnic groups say it has become more common for people to express racism toward other ethnicities. Throughout this essay, there will be two examples of racism that will be discussed. Number one the Scottsboro trial and number 2 the To Kill A Mockingbird novel . These examples genuinely show the negative factors of racism.
The Scottsboro trials were trials in which two white women wrongly accused nine black men of rape (Anderson). Racism is very prevalent in the Scottsboro trials, as racism can be defined in this case as Whites pushing Blacks down to gain higher status (Schafer). It was found during the trial that many of the men were not in the same boxcar as the women and there was no doctor’s evidence of rape (Anderson). Anderson also states that the black men were given drunk, and clearly incompetent lawyers for this case. Even after one woman admitted that the rape never happened, the jury would not give in and the case continued (Anderson).
During segregation African Americans were treated poorly; the books To Kill a Mockingbird (TKM) and Mississippi Trial, 1955 (MT,1955) shows us this. In some places they were treated fair; the movie A Time To Kill (ATTK) shows us this. TKM and MT, 1955 were biased against African Americans, but ATTK was not. First of all, in the book TKM, African American Tom Robinson was sentenced to jail for a crime he did not commit.
Harper lee wrote a novel to kill a mockingbird. The novel is about racism and what is right and what is wrong. The Scottsboro Boys were an influence on the writing if lee’s writing To Kill a Mockingbird. The nine African American teenagers accused in Alabama raping of Ruby Bates and Victoria Price on a train in 1931.The scottsboro trial was one of many subjects that Harper lee talked about in her novel.
Emmett Till was a 14-year-old African-American boy who was on vacation in 1955 when a white store clerk accused him of whistling at her. This has not been proven. According to fbi.gov, he “.was kidnapped, beaten, shot in the head, had a large metal fan tied to his neck with barbed wire, and was thrown into the Tallahatchie River.” As could be surmised, he was killed. His body was found and an investigation was opened, and “Roy Bryant [husband of the “victim”] and his half-brother J.W. Milam were accused of the murder, and an all-white, all-male jury acquitted both of them.”
Author Harper Lee published To Kill a Mockingbird in 1960 during a time of change in the United States, race relations were strained, civil rights leaders were emerging from sit-ins and protests and states confronted the tensions of segregation. To Kill a Mockingbird, while fictional, had a plot that resonated with many southern whites and African Americans, that of racial injustice and loss of innocence. The author claims that the plot is based on her interpretation of events that occurred in her home state of Alabama. While she does not reference the exact event the plot is based on there are similarities to the Scottsboro, Alabama case that occurred in 1931 in which nine African American males were accused of raping a white woman on a train to Mississippi. The novel deals with the serious issues of racial inequality as well as issues of leadership, courage and integrity.
Injustice The Scottsboro Case shed light on the racial practices expressed in law that made a great impact on the legal system today. The actual victims of the Case did not receive a fair trial due to the color of their skin. The ones who played the victims planned the crime, and their stories made no sense. But like many of the trials during the time it wasn’t based on the actual evidence that was found,or even the defendants ' stories.
The Scottsboro trials were trials of 9 black boys ages 12-17. These young men were all accused of rape by two women who were already in trouble with the law (Anderson). Things that led up to the trials were all of these young men and women were on a train to hitch a ride. The black men were in a different train car than the women, despite the women still accused them of rape. As the men were getting off the train the women screamed “Rape” and the young men were immediately taken by police (Anderson).
Harper Lee was inspired to write To Kill a Mockingbird by all of the unspeakable events that happened in the 1930’s including racial tensions, Jim Crow laws, and the Scottsboro
Inequalities and injustice; To Kill a Mockingbird still relates today. To Kill a Mockingbird is the story of a young black man wrongfully accused of a crime and a coming of age novel about a young girl living in alabama in the 1930s. Was written in 1960 by harper lee changed the lives of many people. On the 50th anniversary of the book's release day, NPR published an article saying, “To Kill a Mockingbird didn't change everyone's mind, but it did open some.