How Was Harper Lee Influenced By The Civil Rights Movement

Khang Nguyen

Mrs.Lytle

English 1.4

7 February 2023

How was Lee influenced by the Civil Rights Movement? In the 1960s, America was a nation in upheaval. African Americans unified for the first time, were standing up, and protesting against some racist culture that existed throughout nearly all American history. This movement was one of the major things that influenced the ideas in Harper Lee’s novel, “To kill a mockingbird”. This essay is about the author's experiences of living through the civil rights movement, through issues like segregation, Brown vs board of education, and finally, the civil rights movement itself and how it helped turn this book into a voice for african americans.

In the 50s in most southern states, “segregation was

For many black students in the 50s, schools were “segregated on the basis of race”(ABC-CLIO). Black schools received the worst funding, nearly no materials, but were still somehow considered equal to white schools. This all changed on May 17,1954, when the supreme court ruled that “segregation violated the 14th amendment”(ABC-CLIO). This was changed because of Brown vs Board of education, which was a lawsuit against the Topeka school board by a group of black parents who were concerned that their children had to travel far distances just to go to a black school. This didn’t all come without some ugly marks. As 9 black students were preparing to go to Little Rock High School, a former all-white school, Arkansas governor Faubus called on the state guard to prevent the students from entering. These 9 students were booed by locals and received plenty of death threats to the point that leaders in the city told Washington that it needed to send help because the city couldn’t protect the students. The crisis was finally resolved after the president sent in US troops to protect the

African Americans unified together to protest against unfair laws and cultural taboos placed on them. One of the events that kicked off the movement was the murder of Emmett Till. In 1955, Emett was coming to Mississippi to visit his relatives. Due to not knowing their ways, he made some “flirtatious remarks to a white woman”(ABC-CLIO). That night, a group of southern white men kidnapped Till to a creak, where they beat him and later killed him. Despite evidence proving the men’s guilt, “an all white jury found the defendants not guilty”(ABC-CLIO). Till’s death sparked massive protests with some police having to come to suppress. Emmett got an open casket at his funeral, because his mom wanted the world to see what people did to her son. His body was so brutalized that it was unrecognizable. If the movement was a inferno, this was the gasoline, waiting for the spark of