The Scottsboro Trial

Harper Lee’s reenactment of the 1930 culture was completely accurate. She portrays an environment where blacks are completely disregarded as humans. Lee also shows how the time period permits for behavioral cruelty. For example during the trial, Dill is upset when Tom Robinson is convicted guilty. Scout comforts him saying not to worry, that Robinson is just a negro. Scout saying this displays how the social ladder has blacks at the bottom. Furthermore, Lee shows how white men had the most privileges, and completely disrespected the black population. She depicts this using the example where “Negroes worshiped in [the church] on Sundays and white men gambled in it on weekdays”(Lee 118). This illustrates how the black population was regarded

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. One discrepancy in the book versus the Scottsboro case is the number of people regarded as guilty. In the book the only person who was put under trial was Tom Robinson. In the actual Scottsboro case, nine boys were tried and some of their conditions compromised their abilities. Two boys were so severely impoverished that they couldn’t walk, and could barely see. Therefore, in their case it was unreasonable to hold them guilty of such a crime. Another inconsistency between the Scottsboro Trial, and the one that took place in the book is the number of trials. In Lee’s reenactment of the trial Robinson was shot and died after the first trial when he felt that he had no chance of ever winning. In the Scottsboro Trial there were 3 retrials, and the boys were then all released. During the last trial in the real case the boys were able to convince the right people, and added to the

For instance, people thought that if they treated African Americans like equals, it would encourage sexual unions. In To Kill A Mockingbird, part of the plot includes a trial in which Tom Robinson, a black man is convicted guilty for allegedly raping a white women. Police forces wasted no time arresting Robinson when the claim was heard. This is because during the time period, the thought in everyone's minds including the african american population was that a black man always had the desire to rape or have sexual intercourse with a white woman. Another example in the book of the nineteen thirties culture takes place in a car. If a black and white person drove a car together, the black person would have to sit in the back of the car, or in the trunk. When Robinson dies and Atticus decides to tell Helen (Tom Robinson's wife) that Tom was killed, Atticus takes Calpurnia with him. No surprise, but Calpurnia being a black woman riding with a white man sat in the back seat of the car.