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Similarities Between To Kill A Mockingbird And Scottsboro Trial

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ScottsBoro Boys Trial V Maccomb The 1930s were a time of difficulty for people of color in the United States, especially in the south. African Americans were kept separate from white folks and were treated below them, simply because of the color of their skin. During this time, we saw monumental events that spiked up the civil rights movement and had people of color begin to fight for equal rights. One of these events was the Scottsboro trials. These trials focused around a group of black boys who were persecuted and treated unfairly due to the color of their skin. Harper Lee, the author of To Kill A Mockingbird, grew up during the time this was taken place and it shows in her writing. The novel To Kill a Mockingbird revolves around the trial of Tom Robinson, a trial very reminiscent of the Scottsboro Trials of the 1930s. The two trials have many similarities in characters, events, and the verdict. The Scottsboro incident took place on March 25, 1931. Nine black teenage boys were riding a freight train along with some other white males and two white females.The black boys got in an altercation with the white youths and ended up getting arrested. At this time, the two white females, Ruby Bates and Victoria Price, gave a statement saying the black boys raped them. The trial began on April 6, …show more content…

For the fictional trial of Tom Robinson, it was forgotten as quick as it happened and the only people who seemed to be affected were Atticus Finch’s family and Tom’s wife (Lee). The Scottsboro trial however left lasting effects on the whole world. Since it had received national attention, it opened up the civil rights discussion. This was one of the events that helped start up the civil right movement and made african americans begin to fight to be equal. Trials and cases like this helped lead the country to where it is today and is something people look back on even now to make sure everyone is treated equally and

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“Scottsboro Trial” by Susan Altman discusses how nine African Americans in 1931 were arrested for being falsely accused of rape. The source gives an overall summary and events that happened to the boys after standing trial. From reading the source the information is very reliable and unbiased. The goal of the source was to tell you how, why, and what happen to the Scottsboro boys.

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851 Words | 4 Pages

In the south back in the 1930’s there were many Americans who did not know the meaning of equality for all. With this being the case, many black people faced discrimination daily and it followed through to the legal systems especially in the south where both being compared took place. The evidence provided in both trials proved to be weak. Despite this, both defendants had determined lawyers who believed in justice.

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Scottsboro Trial Two young women is all it takes to create one of the most tragic epoch's of African-American history after the abolishment of slavery. When Victoria Price, and Ruby Bates decide to ride the rails to look for some incentive in their lives, they witness an opportunity to ruin nine young black boy's life. A fight broke out after a gang of white boys agitated, and tried to force a gang of black boys to jump off a train.

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823 Words | 4 Pages

In this paper it will talk about how the girls were in this case. The scottsboro case was about a group of men that were accused for rapping two women on a train, in the 1930s. Tom Robinson’s case was about him rapping a white women. In the book to kill a mockingbird by Harper Lee. To kill a mockingbird is about Atticus defending a man named Tom Robinson.

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The Scottsboro Trails last two decades that came along with wasted lives, ended careers, people being made into hero’s, and opening southern juries to the blacks. Much like in To Kill a Mocking Bird, The Scottsboro Trails society shaped everything and everyone around them. In this case, how did society shape Mayella Ewell, Ruby Bates, and Victoria Price into victims and accuser? Mayella Ewell and Ruby Bates are in many ways similar victims unlike Victoria Price. In the Mayella’s story she was from a very small prejudice town during the depression.

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692 Words | 3 Pages

To Kill a Mockingbird is a story about an african american man who has there life on the line because his being falsely accused of raping a white woman. To Kill a Mockingbird was based off the true story of the Scottsboro boys who were a group of african american teenagers who all had their lives on the line for being falsely accused of raping two white women. Both of these cases are similar because they both have to do with african american men who are being falsely accused of rape, deal with racial injustice or hatred, and are both represented by kind white lawyers. Both the Scottsboro case and the Tom Robinson case, where about black men that had their lives on the line for being falsely accused of rape. On April 9th,1931 an Alabama judge sentenced

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967 Words | 4 Pages

The time period of the 1930s included The Great Depression, Jim Crow laws, and the Civil Rights Coalition, leaving hardships and crime in their wake. Harper Lee’s famous novel To Kill a Mockingbird that was published on July 11, 1960, gives the readers an insight of what it was like for her growing up in a small southern town in the 1930s. The events she witnessed growing up as a lawyer’s daughter during this time had significant influence for the best-selling novel To Kill a Mockingbird that won a Pulitzer Prize in 1961, and became an Academy Award winning film in 1962. To Kill a Mockingbird has a strong theme of believing the good in everyone, no matter the circumstances. Harper Lee’s father, Amasa Coleman Lee, was a lawyer.

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718 Words | 3 Pages

The Scottsboro tragedy showed the world and the North of the U.S how bad the racism problem was in the South. That was all these trials were based on. Alabama wanted to kill these men just because of the color of their skin, no real evidence. These trials revealed that injustice and caused the civil rights movement to become more supported. Although this incident was a sad time for the U.S, it helped uncover a lot of problems in the South and helped our judicial system change to be more

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Comparing and Contrasting the Trials of To Kill a Mockingbird and The Scottsboro Boys The Great Depression of the 1930s affected every race living in the United States but no race was hit harder than the African Americans. Africans Americans were usually the victims of injustices by the hands of white people. In courtrooms race was valued more than evidence when giving a verdict for an African America. This is similar to the fictional trial of Tom Robinson in Harper Lee’s

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1444 Words | 6 Pages

In 1931, a group of African-American boys were tried and convicted of a crime that none of them had committed. The nine young, black males had been riding the rails looking for work when a fight broke out between them and a group of white boys. The youths were arrested for vagrancy then tried for the false accusation of rape. The case of the Scottsboro Boys showed the true minority injustice of the South do to the Jim Crow Laws.

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The Scottsboro trial and the Tom Robinson trials are so complicated because of all the false evidence and lying involved. Harper Lee made the book To Kill a Mockingbird from the real world events like Scottsboro trial with the Tom Robinson trial. Two girls that were ¨raped¨ falsely accused nine black men, Ruby Bates and Victoria Price said they were raped when they were prostitutes, they were illegally going across the state to get money, knowing that prostitution that was illegal in Alabama. The Tom Robinson Trial only had Mayella Ewell that accused Tom falsely, Mayella stating ¨she was on the porch when Tom Robinson came by, she asked him to chop up an old piece of furniture for kindling, and when she went inside to get a nickel to pay him he attacked her from behind.¨(Lee, chapter 18)

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1450 Words | 6 Pages

Harper Lee is famous for writing the American classic To Kill a Mockingbird, a book about racism during the Great Depression and how it affects young Jean Louise “Scout” Finch and the entire town of Maycomb, Alabama. It is not difficult to realize how several historical incidents could have influenced the writing of her book. These are the Jim Crow laws, mob mentality, and the Scottsboro trials. To start, the Jim Crow laws are sets of rigid anti-

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1340 Words | 6 Pages

Real court cases have influenced the writing of To Kill A Mockingbird. Harper Lee chose to focus on racial discrimination in the court and legal system to advocate and spread awareness of these issues and change the broken reality he lived in. To Kill A Mockingbird allows the reader to connect with the events in the book and nurture compassion for real racial issues and cases. Tom Robinson's case was heavily influenced by the Scott Borro trial thirty years before Lee wrote To Kill A Mockingbird. In both cases, the convicts were falsely accused by white women, both using the prosecution to elude other issues.

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1657 Words | 7 Pages

Injustice The Scottsboro Case shed light on the racial practices expressed in law that made a great impact on the legal system today. The actual victims of the Case did not receive a fair trial due to the color of their skin. The ones who played the victims planned the crime, and their stories made no sense. But like many of the trials during the time it wasn’t based on the actual evidence that was found,or even the defendants ' stories.

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735 Words | 3 Pages

First of, in both the Scottsboro trial and Robinson vs. Ewell trial, the jury was all white. This definitely impacted the results of both trials. If the jury had more diversity in race, the outcome may have been different toward both parties. The overall results of the trial might not have been in such unison. In the book, the results of the jury’s decision was guilty, guilty, guilty, in that essence if there were blacks in the jury to see Robinson's view, the ruling might have been guilty, innocent, innocent, guilty.

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