1. An Introduction to Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird

2. Harper Lee Born on April 28, 1926 in Monroeville, Alabama
Youngest of four children
1957 – submitted manuscript for her novel; was urged to rewrite it
Spent over two years reworking it
1960 – To Kill a Mockingbird (her only novel) published
was one of two persons named by President Johnson to the National Council of Arts

3. SETTING Maycomb, Alabama (fictional city) 1933-1935
Although slavery has long been abolished, the Southerners in Maycomb continue to believe in white supremacy.

4. Main Characters
Scout (Jean Louise Finch) – six-year-old narrator of story
Jem (Jeremy Finch) – her older brother
Atticus Finch – Jem and Scout’s father, a prominent lawyer who defends a black man accused of raping a white woman
Arthur (Boo) Radley – a thirty-three-year-old recluse who lives next door
Charles Baker (Dill) Harris – Jem and Scout’s friend who comes to visit his aunt in Maycomb each summer
Tom Robinson – a respectable black man accused of raping a white woman
Calpurnia – the Finches’ black cook

5. Social Class in the Novel
This is probably similar to how class structure existed during the 1930’s in the South. The wealthy, although fewest in number, were most powerful. The blacks, although great in number, were lowest on the class ladder, and thus, had the least privileges.
Examples of each social class:
Wealthy - Finches
Country Folk - Cunninghams
“White Trash” – Ewells
Black Community – Tom Robinson

6. Living in a World of Discrimination
ACTIVITY:
You will go to the assigned website to view a number of photographs depicting racial discrimination. Choose one picture and write a one-page reflection on how you felt upon seeing it. Consider how you would feel if you saw the public sign as a white person, and then as a colored person.
Click here to view Photographs of Racial Discrimination
A cafe near the tobacco market. (Signs: Separate doors for "White" and for "Colored.“) North Carolina, 1940

7. Life During the 1930s Race Relations
Nine black teenagers are falsely charged with raping two white women in Scottsboro, Alabama; eight are convicted and sentenced to death
The U.S. Supreme Court reverses their convictions because their constitutional rights had been violated
The teens are tried for a second time, and are again found guilty
The Supreme Court reverses the convictions again
Eventually, four of the defendants are freed; the other five serve prison terms
The last Scottsboro defendant was paroled in 1950
It was virtually impossible for a black to receive a fair trial

8. Life During the 1930s
The Great Depression sweeps the nation – Many families do not even have money for basic needs such as food, clothing, and shelter.
The per capita income for families in Alabama (and Oklahoma) is $125 - $250 a year
Many southern blacks pick cotton for a living
Franklin D. Roosevelt is President

9. Life During the 1930s Hitler is Chancellor of Germany
He believes that Jews, African Americans, and other races are inferior to Anglo-Saxons.
In 1936, Jesse Owens, a black American athlete, traveled to Germany to participate in the Summer Olympics.
Owens’ biggest competitor in the long jump was a German named Luz Long.
Despite racial tensions, the two became good friends.
Jesse Owens won the gold medal and Long won the silver.
Long was later killed during World War II, and Jesse Owens traveled back to Germany to pay his respects when the war was over.

10. Legal Segregation in Alabama, 1923-1940
No white female nurses in hospitals that treat black men
Separate passenger cars for whites and blacks
Separate waiting rooms for whites and blacks
Separation of white and black convicts
Separate schools
No interracial marriages
Segregated water fountains
Segregated theatres

11. "Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy
"Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."