Examples Of Jim Crow Laws In To Kill A Mockingbird

By: Shuford Edwards The Novel To Kill a Mockingbird is a stellar example of how communities can be separated. There are showings of how community determines who is excluded and who is included, the “universe of obligation” in society, the written and unwritten rules and the consequences for disobeying these rules. There are also many conflicts between characters and their setting, as well as conflicts about the rules and expectations of their community and their society. Many of these themes relate back to United States history from the 1930’s and 1940’s. In the novel we are shown how white and black skin can create two separate “universe’ of obligation” . The “universe of obligation” has a center point and that center point in yourself. Off of that center point there is your mom, dad, aunt, uncle,

Race is the divider between these two. The African-American universe of obligation is a very close group of black people who do not get an equal voice in Maycomb County. The African-Americans are only friends with other African-Americans because white men despise African-Americans and do not want to talk to them. In the 1930’s there were laws put in place called the “Jim Crow Laws”. These laws were designed to prevent African-Americans from having the same rights as white men. In the south African-Americans could not use the same bathrooms, eat at the same restaurants, sit in the same part of the bus, or even watch a film in the same movie theatre. In To Kill a Mockingbird the white”universe of obligation” accuses a member of the African-American “universe of obligation” in Tom Robinson. Tom Robinson was accused of raping a woman by the name of Mayella Ewell. This was a case that a lot of people expected for the Ewell’s to win for the main reason that Tom Robinson was black. Atticus believed that he could win the case so when Judge Taylor came over to his house he accepted the