Examples Of Discrimination In To Kill A Mockingbird

The headquarters for the United States Department of Defense has twice the number of bathrooms needed for a building its size. Known more commonly as “the Pentagon” after its unique, five walled frame, the defense building was constructed during the early 1940’s in Virginia where a code of regulations dubbed the “Jim Crow laws” required people of color to use separate facilities from white citizens. The Jim Crow laws segregated schools, transportation and public places. Although they claimed to make America “separate but equal” they typically left African Americans with inferior conditions and facilities; their libraries only carried secondhand books, their schools were ill supplied, overcrowded and underfunded, and they were required to

Arthur (Boo) Radley, a reclusive townsperson, faces discrimination because he is not like most Maycombers. When Scout first describes Boo she relies upon the gossip and rumors surrounding him for information. Since Boo is so withdrawn that Scout, despite being his neighbor, is not sure he exists, she calls him, “a malevolent phantom. People said he existed, but Jem and I had never seen him” (9). Boo is unlike any other resident of Maycomb, he is set apart by his religiously extreme family who although “welcome anywhere in town, kept to themselves” (9), his hermetic nature and his troublesome youth; when Boo was a teen he was supposedly part of “the nearest thing to a gang ever seen in Maycomb” (10). Boo’s differences have been preyed upon and amplified by the townspeople until the “Boo” presented to children like Scout is more fiction than reality, he is described as a legendary figure who “dined on raw squirrels” (13) and “was about six-and-a-half feet tall” (13). Boo’s nonconformity makes other Maycomb resident’s unjustly suspicious of him. He has not been seen for years and has never harmed his neighbors, yet Boo’s strange habit’s cause the townsfolk to stereotype Boo as someone beastly and dangerous who might cause them harm: “Any stealthy small crimes committed in Maycomb were his work” (9). Maycomb’s residents discriminate

In his closing arguments before the jury Atticus Finch, Tom’s lawyer, speaks of the racism at the core of Tom’s trial. He tells the jurors, “the witnesses for the state... have presented themselves... confident that you gentlemen would go along with ...the evil assumption-...that all Negro men are not to be trusted around our women” (204). In Tom Robinson’s trial everything comes down to race. The majority of the case against him is based solely on assumptions made about his character and the character of colored people as a whole. During the trial, there is little testament suggesting that Tom raped Mayella, and strong evidence of his innocence. Tom’s prosecutors expect to win because of the influence of unfavorable discrimination against black men, like that “all Negroes are basically immoral beings” ( 204). In court, stereotypes against Tom lead to a miscarriage of justice. He is accused and later convicted of raping a white woman on no grounds other than his African descent and dark skin. After Tom is charged with assaulting Mayella Ewell, Atticus’ son, Jem, questions the court's decision because he feels it was not based on sound logic. Atticus explains why the jury