Examples Of Jim Crow Laws In To Kill A Mockingbird

In the early to mid 1900s, Jim Crow laws dominated everyday life, gave African Americans unfair treatment, and separate from white people. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee incorperates many things that subtley protests the Jim Crow laws through her character, Atticus. In the novel, Atticus objects these laws through the way he raises his children, treats his housekeeper, and defends Tom Robinson in the trial. One way that Atticus silently protests the Jim Crow laws are in the way he raises his children. He teaches his children not to say racists slurs or to judge people. For example, when he says to Scout, “Don’t say nigger, Scout. That’s common.” (Lee 85) Because of the society Scout has grown up in, she doesn’t known that saying that

Atticus treats her with respect and dignity, and even sees her as a mother figure to his children. When Atticus is out of town, Calpurnia takes Jem and Scout to a black church, and Scout says, “Atticus seemed to enjoy it,” (Lee 181). Then when Aunt Alexandra gets upset about Calpurnia taking them there and says “…You’ve got to do something about her. You’ve let things go on too long Atticus, too long,’” (Lee 182). Atticus says, “I don’t see any harm in letting her go out there. Cal’d look after her there as well as she does here,” and then later says, “She’s a faithful member of this family…” (Lee 182). This shows that Atticus both respects and cares for Calpurnia, which is something that, at the time, would be seen as inconceivable. Black and white people are supposed to be separate, but Atticus has his white children being raised around a black woman. As Atticus says, “…And another thing, the children love her,” (Lee 183). Atticus knows the children care about her deeply, and this is in part because he has allowed her to be an important part of their lives and help raise them, even if everyone else would just see her as another black

According to the sixth amendment of the constitution, a person accused of a crime has a right to a fair trial, and an impartial jury, which Tom didn’t receive. Even though Atticus knows that they have a no shot of winning the trial, he still does his best to make sure Tom is defended to his fullest extent of his ability, saying to Scout, “Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win.” (Lee 86). He feels obligated to defend Tom, and even if they don’t have much of a shot that doesn’t mean he can’t try to get Tom justice. He says to Scout, “The main one is, if I didn’t I couldn’t hold up my head in town, I couldn’t represent this county in the legislature, I couldn’t even tell you or Jem not to do something again.” (Lee 86). Even though the people in Maycomb treat him badly and call him awful names for defending Tom, he still chooses to do so. He knows that defending Tom is the right thing to do, and if he didn’t he couldn’t ask Jem or Scout to do the right thing because not even he