rejudice in Maycomb in the 1930 's in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

The prominent theme of the novel To Kill a Mockingbird is the portrait of prejudice, in a small southern American town called Maycomb in the
1930’s.

Maycomb is believed to be a replica, of the town Monroeville where the author Harper Lee grew up. Her knowledge of the society in Monroeville
(Maycomb) enables her to hit the reader with more impact; she can portray her views on prejudice and discrimination with stronger force and focus. She gives a realistic representation of people’s attitudes in the Deep South in the 1930’s.

Slavery had been abolished in America after the civil war of 1861-5 this gave black people equal rights. But their freedom made life harder for black people initially, white people (especially in the south), found it hard to accept them as an equal in their society, so they remained segregated.

This is shown in the novel, the black community has its own part of the town, on the outskirts, near the town dump. Also they have their own church, First Purchase African M.E. Church paid for from the first earnings from freed slaves. ‘Negroes worshipped in it on Sundays and white men gambled in it on weekdays’, this shows blatant disrespect for the black community. This segregation is also evident in the courthouse, white people sit in the courtroom, where as the coloured people had to sit in the coloured balcony, they were only allowed to enter the courtroom, when every white person