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More handpicked essays just for you.
The effects of racial stereotypes
Racial segregation in america
Racial segregation in america
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Leading up to the Civil Rights Movement, the black community was in a constant battle against law enforcement treating them unfair compared to the white community. The Scottsboro Boys and Emmett Till’s cases were one of the many times that the legal system showed to be unfair to blacks. In the book To Kill A Mockingbird, the law enforcement and community were very racist against blacks and believed all blacks were criminals. In the story, Atticus Finch, who is a lawyer gets put into a very difficult situation and decides to defend a black man, who went by the name of Tom Robinson.
Mr. Robinson faces racism within the court and in town. Tom Robinson was fated to death even when he had lots of evidence proving his innocence. On page 323 it states, “ Tom was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed.” This shows everyone already made up their mind about Tom without listening to the evidence and Tom never even had a chance of surviving. Also, on page 323 the text says, “but in the secret courts of men's hearts Atticus had no case.”
The group of men wanted to lynch Tom Robinson because of the accusation of him raping a white woman, Mayella Ewell. The court case had not yet happened so nobody had heard Tom’s side of the story and they automatically assumed he had committed the crime because
How would it feel to be tried and convicted for a crime that was misunderstood by just someone’s own skin tone? Well that happened to Tom Robinson. Why talk about this? Well it all ties into the book itself. In one of the plot lines.
The story existed to shed light on the way the world was even as it was being written, including the parts many novels didn’t dare to keep in. At the time reading this book was like being Scout, having your eyes opened to the true nature of the world including all the horrors it holds. “There’s something in our world that makes men lose their heads- they couldn’t be fair if they treid. In our courts, when it’s a white man’s word against a black man’s word, the white always wins. They’re ugly, but these are the facts of life.”
In the novel, Tom Robinson, a Black man, was falsely accused of rape on a little girl names Mayella Ewell. Later in the story, Tom was in court testifying when there were many people who did not respect Tom as
Later on we see more racism through the Tom Robinson trials. Lee Harper takes us through the trial of a black man, Tom Robinson who supposedly raped a white woman, when in fact he did not because she came onto him, and Tom, the black man, is taken to court. The verdict of the trail is obvious but the jury did not seem to think so. Lee reveals: “I shut my eyes. Judge Taylor was polling the jury: ‘Guilty… guilty… guilty,’”
Tom Robinson is unfairly persecuted because his skin is darker than the skin of his neighbors. Robinson is not given a fair trial. Later in the book, an angry mob shows up at the jail, trying to kill him. These strangers acted without knowing if Robinson was guilty or not. Their prejudice, racism, and hate nearly leads them to murder.
How is the racial problem of the southern states of USA in the 1930s portrayed in To Kill a Mockingbird? INTRO In the 1930s the Southern states of America suffered from a strong discrimination and racial hatred towards colored people. They had no rights, no respect and were not allowed to go places white people went. In other words they were segregated from the rest of the society.
The novel “To Kill A Mockingbird” was written in 1960 by Harper Lee in the point of view of a young innocent girl named Scout. One of the main messages that Lee has (need a new word than – indicated or set out) is racism, it plays an important role which strongly impacts many character’s lives unfairly and changes the relationship between two. Harper Lee’s “To Kill A Mockingbird” shows that it is wrong to hurt someone who does no harm to you, for example, black people are innocent but no way did they have as many rights as white people did. Black people lived hard lives because society was judgemental, irrational and most importantly, racist. As Scout and Jem grow older they learn to cope, take responsibility and are introduced to new aspects of life, one of which is racism.
Throughout the book, the theme of racism appears when Tom Robinson is put on trial, in the way Aunt Alexandra treats Calpurnia, and the way Dolphus Raymond gets shunned by his own race. Racism in the early 1900’s was brutal. The entire court case surrounding the Ewells and Tom Robinson portrays a vivid example of life for African American people in those times. White people saw themselves as above African Americans, no matter the circumstance. If an African American person did anything to a white person, the white people felt that they could treat the African American as if they were nothing but an animal.
Essay In the novel ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ by Harper Lee, there are many important messages shown throughout the book. However the primary focus was set on racial prejudice that existed in the 1930s-1940’s in the fictional town of Maycomb County. The racism in the novel was very much a reality in 1930s-1940s America. A very good example of the racial prejudice that existed was in the courtroom during Tom Robinson’s trial, an innocent Negro man held against his will for a crime he did not commit.
Tom Robinson is a black man who is wrongfully convicted of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell. This novel goes through Scout's life from when she was 6, till she is 9. She lives in the town of Maycomb Alabama, and lives an innocent life until about halfway through the story, where she begins to ask questions. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Scout shows the readers that racial inequality creates an unjust society through the African American community, through the people surrounding colored folks, and through Tom Robinson’s Case. The first example of the consequences of racial inequality is the African American community in Maycomb.
Finally, as the book comes to conclusion Tom Robinson, a black man, is pleaded quilty with the charge of raping a white women. Throughout the novel, it was proven all he was trying to do and aiming for was to help a young girl. People in society gain the evil assumption that all black men and women aren 't equal to those of a different race. A part in the novel that proves how intolerable the society is; on page 242, "A white man 's word, against a black man 's word, the white man always wins" (Lee). This quote shows how the main reason Tom was guilty was due to the color of his skin.
Blacks were treated equally in the book. Tom Robinson was accused of rape but he truely didn’t do. The reason why people thought he did do it was because of his race. Tom Robinson was a black worker that had an arm that didn’t work so he couldn’t use it.