1. Understanding historical events related to To Kill a Mockingbird
U.S.A. Timeline
Understanding historical events related to
To Kill a Mockingbird

2. 1850s
1852 – Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe is published. Focused national attention on the cruelties of slavery.
1857 – Supreme Court ruled on the Dred Scott case. African-Americans could not be citizens of the U.S.A.
1859 – The last slave ship arrives in Mobile Bay, Alabama

3. 1860s Abraham Lincoln elected President. Civil War 1860-1865
1863 The Emancipation Proclamation – frees slaves in all areas of the U.S.A.
1865 – 13th Amendment – Outlaws slavery
1866 – Ku Klux Klan is founded in Memphis
1867 – Reconstruction begins
1868 – 14th Amendment ratified – Grants citizenship to any person born or naturalized into the U.S.A.

4. 1870s
1870 – 15th Amendment – Guaranteed black male Americans the right to vote.
1877 – End of Reconstruction – Federal troops withdraw from the South and end federal efforts to protect the civil rights of African- Americans

5. 1880s 1881 – Public transportation is segregated in the South.
1882 – Lynching begins Black Americans are lynched in the 1880s.

6. 1890s
Literacy tests and understanding tests keep black Americans from voting in the South.
Lynching continues – 1111 black Americans are lynched in the 1890s.
1896 – Plessy vs Ferguson – “Separate but Equal” facilities are legal, known as Jim Crow Laws.

7.
Booker T. Washington dines with President Roosevelt at the White House causing white Americans to become furious over this casual act.
1909 NAACP is formed.
627 black Americans lynched

8.
1913 – Federal segregation begins in work places, rest rooms, and lunch rooms.
– World War I
467 black Americans lynched from

9. 1920s 19th Amendment gives women the right to vote.
First radio broadcast.
Anti-Lynching bill fails in the U.S. Senate – Lynching continues. 3,436 black Americans are lynched between
Harlem Renaissance begins – creativity in black writers, poets, and artists.

10. 1920s Continued 1929 – Herbert Hoover becomes President.
October 29th Black Tuesday – Stock Market crash.
Hoovervilles and Hoboes become common in the U.S.A.

11. 1930s 3.2 million Americans are out of work.
1931- Scottsboro Trial begins. Nine black teenagers charged with rape of two white girls despite lack of evidence.
1932 – F.D.R. – Franklin Delano Roosevelt becomes President pledging a New Deal for America.

12. 1930s Cont. 1932 - 1933– Worst years of the Great Depression.
Over 10,000 banks fail.
1934 – Dust Bowl hurts American farmers.
1935 – FDR creates jobs through programs like the WPA

13. Prices in the 1930s Milk 41 cents and Bread 7 cents.
Gas 10 cents and a car $550.
House $5,759
Average Salary $1,368
Unemployment 25 percent

14. Harper Lee’s Life
Grew up in the 1930s in a small southern Alabama town.
Father (Amasa) an attorney and Alabama legislator
Playmates – older brother and neighbor Truman Capote
Passionate reader
Scottsboro trials covered by local news when Lee was 6 years old.