What Are The Similarities Between The Scottsboro Boys Trial And To Kill A Mockingbird

Although To Kill a Mockingbird written by Harper Lee is a fictional novel, could the trial of Tom Robinson actually have occurred based on real life events? Prejudice is an unfavorable preconceived opinion or feeling formed beforehand without knowledge, thought, or reason (Dictionary.com). In the small county of Maycomb, Alabama, people are extremely prejudice, as racism dominates people's minds in the small, tight knit community. The county had recently been told “that it had nothing to fear but fear itself” (Lee 6). This means that the novel takes place throughout the 1930’s during the Great Depression as President Roosevelt said this to keep American spirits high. Even though To Kill a Mockingbird is a work of fiction, an event like the

The Scottsboro Boys Trial certainly shows dramatic flaws in the United States legal since, besides the fact it took place in the peak of prejudice across the United States. In the year 1931, which was around the same time period that To Kill A Mockingbird took place, nine black teenagers were accused of beating up other white boys on the train, and most importantly blamed for the false rape of Victoria Price and Ruby Bates (Sorenson 5). There was no medical evidence as to whether the girls were raped or boys beaten, just the word of a white person being known as superior to a black person’s just like the trial of Tom Robinson (20). In the end of the three trials that went to the United States Supreme Court, the boys received a quick, speedy, unfair trial with unjust defense lawyers and the punishments that ranged from 75 years in prison to death (25). One boy was shot in prison when attempting to make an escape, which is almost identical to the circumstance of when Tom Robinson is shot to death when attempting to escape prison (48). Harper Lee could very well have based her novel on this very exact case as black boys are wrongfully accused of rape with no evidence, and a defendant was shot while trying to escape, although this is not the only similar case to that of Tom