Why Is The Scottsboro Trial Important In To Kill A Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel written by Harper Lee about a young girl’s life in Alabama during the 1930s. Harper Lee wrote TKAM to bring attention to the racism that had been ongoing in the South. Some important topics related to this novel are the Scottsboro trials, the 1930s in the South, and social class. The Scottsboro Trials involved nine black teens accused of raping and attacking white teens on a train. Also, "The initial trials happened quickly, with as little as a day for each trial" (The Scottsboro Boys Trial). which, for such a huge trial, is not a long time and shows that there was very little thought in the decision-making process. Overall, Harper Lee’s novel demonstrates a connection between racial and social realities in

Mayella Ewell kissed Tom and then Bob got extremely mad and beat his daughter, and he blamed it on Tom because he was black, and wouldn’t win the case. Everyone knew that Tom wouldn’t win the case because he was black, and the Ewells could say whatever lies they wanted to and they would still win. Scout had asked Atticus, "are we going to win it?" "no honey" (Lee 87). Atticus knew that no matter how good a defense you could have, the whites would still win no matter what. Bob Ewell took out his anger on Tom Robinson, and in the 1930s, "Many whites sought to protect their former status by threatening African Americans who exercised their new rights" (1930s in the South and To Kill A Mockingbird). The quote plays a significant role throughout the novel because the final verdict is known at the start of the trial, similar to what happened in the 1930s. Not only did the 1930s in the South and TKAM have similarities, but they also had

One idea was that in Maycomb there was a "totem pole" of social classes. The Finch's were on top, then the Cunningham's, then the Ewell's, and then the blacks. One day, Scout asked Aunt Alexandra if she could hang out with Walter Cunningham, Aunt Alexandra said no "because—he—is—trash"(Lee) She believes that the Finch’s wealth," even though they are poor, outnumbers the Cunninghams by too much, so Walter can’t come over. In the 1930s, "people who were of a higher class "flaunt(ed) their wealth more than ever" (Racial Hierarchies in To Kill a Mockingbird) and believed that they were better than the people of the lower class. Since the Cunninghams were of higher wealth than the Ewells, they didn’t have anyone else to take their anger out on other than the blacks. So that’s what Bob Ewell did to Tom Robinson and got him killed. TKAM and social classes in the 1930s played an important