Timeline for Understanding To Kill a Mockingbird

1865 – 13 th Amendment In 1865, the 13 th Amendment got rid of slavery in the United States. Although slavery was now illegal, discrimination still existed. States and local communities passed “black codes” which severely limited the rights of black Americans (no voting, no access to schools, prohibited jobs, etc.)

Plessy vs. Ferguson Homer Plessy was born a free person and was one-eighth black and seven-eighths white, but he was classified as Black, and thus required to sit in the "colored" car. When, in an act of planned disobedience, Plessy refused to leave the white car and move to the colored car, he was arrested and jailed. In Plessy vs. Ferguson, the Supreme Court ruled that segregation is legal as long as the facilities are “separate but equal.”

Lynching in Congress Lynching is a punishment carried out by a mob, usually by hanging, in order to intimidate, control, or otherwise manipulate a population of people. In 1900, George White and some other members of Congress believed that lynching should be made illegal and punishable. However, the bill never made it out of committee.

“Strange Fruit”

Harper Lee

1929 – 1930s and The Great Depression

The Scottsboro Trials Police in Scottsboro, Alabama arrest nine black men accused of raping two white women. The boys, who ranged in age from 12-18, were convicted on hearsay evidence, and all but one were sent to death row. An international protest movement launched as a result of the convictions, and all of the defendants were eventually released but not until 1950.

Brown vs. Board of Education The U.S. Supreme Court reverses Plessy vs. Ferguson in a landmark decision. The court ruled that “separate but equal” is unconstitutional thus making segregation in public facilities like schools also unconstitutional.

Emmett Till Roy Bryant and J.W. Millam murdered Emmett Till, a 14- year-old black teen from Chicago, in Mississippi. A picture of Emmitt’s open casket was published in Jet Magazine creating a public response that, arguably, launched the growing civil rights movement into the public consciousness.

1960 – To Kill A Mockingbird The civil rights movement is in full swing. Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel is published. The novel is about prejudice in its many forms. It is set in the deep South and seen through the eyes of a young girl.

1963 – Martin Luther King Jr. Over 250,000 participate in the March on Washington at the Lincoln Memorial, the largest protest assembly in U.S. history. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers his famous “I Have a Dream Speech.” President John F. Kennedy denounces segregation in the strongest statement ever by a U.S. president. Both men were eventually assassinated.

WRITING EXERCISE Choose one of the topics below and write a paragraph in response that includes no fewer than FIVE sentences. Write about a piece of music that you feel has been inspired by discrimination or that you feel works to educate the audience about discrimination. Mention lyrics and what the song makes you think about. Write about one thing that you learned this week through our discussions about discrimination or the history of civil rights in our country. Describe how this topic made you think or feel.