What Are Jim Crow Laws In To Kill A Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee incorporates a sufficient number of racial concerns which took place long before the author's story rises and remained for a long time after. It is vital to mention that Lee in her novel exposes multiple layers of prejudice and in order to comprehensively understand them all, it is necessary for the reader to learn the complicated account of the past events related to the race relations in the South. Concretely, the cases of Jim Crow laws and Scottsboro trials. The main purpose of the essay is to provide an evidence concerning the influence of aforementioned examples on the plot development in To Kill a Mockingbird. To begin with, it is important to explain the nature of Jim Crow laws. In their essence,

“The Jim Crow laws and system of etiquette were undergirded by violence, real and threatened” ("Jim Crow Museum: Origins Of Jim Crow"). For instance, within the period when the laws were established, the membership of such supremacist groups as Ku Klux Klan reached the unbelievable point of six million members. If consider the times of the Jim Crow laws, it is possible to see that they truly exist in terms of the novel's setting. Particularly, in spite of the fact that the citizens of Maycomb are fairly satisfied with the Jim Crow laws, Atticus' protest is apparent in this case. “There’s nothing more sickening to me than a low-grade white man who’ll take advantage of a Negro’s ignorance”

During the second trial for the Scottsboro "boys" that was ordered by the Supreme Court, one of the women recalled her initial statement and denied that any of women had been raped. “ The trial of the Scottsboro Boys is perhaps one of the proudest moments of American radicalism, in which a mass movement of blacks and whites—led by Communists and radicals—successfully beat the Jim Crow legal system” ("Scottsboro Boys, Trial And Defense Campaign (1931–1937) | The Black Past: Remembered And Reclaimed"). In To Kill a Mockingbird, Tom Robinson has features from all nine accused boys despite the fact he is far older. Tom Robinson was accused individually upon the word of a white woman. Atticus said to Jem concerning the death sentence of Tom that he is “a colored man, Jem. No jury in this part of the world's going to say 'We think you're guilty, but not very' on a charge like that. It was either a straight acquittal or nothing” (Lee).
In conclusion, Jim Crow laws and Scottsboro trials significantly influenced the plot and character evolution of To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. All these cases the author witnessed and perceived as a personal matter. Racial inequality and prejudice developed into truly horrible events, and though her novel, Lee appeals to the readers that it is vital to remember