Scottsboro Trial: The Real Trial of Tom Robinson in To Kill a Mockingbird

There are many similarities between the Scottsboro trial and the trial of Tom Robinson in the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. “No crime in American history—let alone a crime that never occurred—produced as many trials, convictions, reversals, and retrials as did an alleged gang rape of two white girls by nine black teenagers on a Southern railroad freight run on March 25, 1931” (Linder 1). The author of To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee, was a young girl during the Scottsboro trial and based the trial of Tom Robinson in her novel off of the Scottsboro trial of 1931. The three main similarities between the Scottsboro trial and the trial of Tom Robinson are the geographic settings, the portrayal of racism, and the specifics of the court

In the book “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, Tom Robinson is in trial for the supposed rape of Bob Ewell’s daughter, Mayella Ewell. Tom Robinson was on his way home when Mayella Ewell asked him to help her with something. Being a kind man, he went into her yard and started to look for some of the plants he usually dug up for her when she asked him for help. He didn’t find any, so he asked her what it was she needed. She told him a box she needed was up in a place she couldn’t reach. He went in the house and grabbed the box, and after he did Mayella told him the door was broken. Tom Robinson proceeded to look at the door, not finding anything wrong with it. He told her and she jumped on him, hugging him and saying she never kissed a black

The Scottsboro trials are related to the novel To Kill a Mockingbird in the sense of hope. In the novel, Atticus tells Jem "It's not time to worry yet." (Lee 213). By saying this to Jem, and reassuring him that it's not over yet, it shows that Atticus still has hope for Tom and his family. When they lost the trial and everyone on Tom's side of the argument lost hope Atticus still fought for him. Atticus had hope that it would be okay for Tom. The Scottsboro boys showed hope through each-and-every one of their long trials. I believe that they never lost hope because they had the support of the rest of the group, who were all going through the same situation. As the trials ran on for 6 years they got more hopeful they would succeed every time. By showing hope the outcomes of the trials got better. On April 6 and 7th ,1931 the boys were all sentenced to death except the youngest, thirteen-year-old Roy Wright was sentenced to life in prison (The Scottsboro Trial: A Timeline). From April to December, the boys were all brought back to trial but were found guilty (The Scottsboro Trial: A Timeline). Then finally on July 24, 1937 the rape charges

The Scottsboro Trials were among the largest legal injustices in the South. The events that started the trials began in the early spring of 1931, when nine young black men were falsely accused of raping two white women on a train. The cases were tried and appealed in Alabama and twice argued before the U.S. Supreme Court. The state pursued the case and all-white juries delivered guilty verdicts that initially carried the death penalty. Several of the accused were sentenced to prison terms and all had long stays in prison as the case made its way through the legal system. The case later was one of the inspirations for Harper Lee's book “To Kill A Mockingbird”

On March 25 1931 a group of nine boys were charged with raping two girls on a train traveling from Paint Rock Alabama. Several years later Harper Lee wrote her famous novel How To Kill a Mockingbird. In her story she made a character named Tom Robinson that was charged and accused of raping Mayella Ewell, it is an understanding parallel comparison between Tom Robinson and the Scottsboro case. Both Tom Robinson and the nine other boys race was presumed guilty before their trial. Harper Lee was convinced to making How To Kill a Mockingbird because she was a kid when the Scottsboro trial was happening and made comparison to the nine black boys to Tom Robinson, than Mayella Ewell to Victoria Price and Ruby Bates.

In to kill a mockingbird the defendant Tom Robinson is a young black man and the plaintiffs is Mayella Ewell, a young white girl . Through colorism black people seem to appear as “bad” whereas white people are seen as “good”. Tom Robinson has the poor event of being judged .

According to American history, prejudice is shown through the courtroom’s jury when making decisions to send the alleged African Americans to jail. On March 24, 1931, nine African American lives were jeopardized with the false accusations of rape that further scrutinizes the nation’s controversial look upon justice. Referring to Abigail Thernson and Henry Fetter when talking about The Scottsboro Trials it states, “Represented by unprepared out of date counsel who had no more than a half an hour consult

When Harper Lee was writing about the trial of Tom Robinson in “To Kill a Mockingbird,” she had a very real case to look to for inspiration. The trial of the Scottsboro Boys was a world renowned case in the 1930’s in which nine black youths were accused of raping to white girls in Alabama. Lee’s novel took this case and created the fictional case of Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a lower class white girl in a small town in Alabama during the Depression-era. The Scottsboro trials were the main source of inspiration for Lee’s novel, and although the circumstances of the novel differed from the real-life scandal, the similarities between the two cases are quite abundant.

The Scottsboro Trial and the trial of Tom Robinson are almost identical in the forms of bias shown and the accusers that were persecuted. The bias is obvious and is shown throughout both cases, which took place in the same time period. Common parallels are seen through the time period that both trials have taken place in and those who were persecuted and why they were persecuted in the first place. The thought of "All blacks were liars, and all blacks are wrongdoers," was a major part of all of these trails. A white person's word was automatically the truth when it was held up to the credibility of someone whom was black. Both trials were perfect examples of how the people of Alabama were above the law and could do whatever they

One of the most important cases in the history of the judicial system is little known in the modern world. The case of the Scottsboro Boys made headlines in early 1931 when nine African-American men were charged with the gang rape of two white females on a freight train from Chattanooga to Memphis. Since the time of the trial, it has become widely accepted that the allegation was false and that no rape actually occurred. However, the case represents an issue greater than itself, one that is explored similarly in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee through the case of Tom Robinson. The issue of large scale racism and discrimination has been a problem plaguing American culture for a very long time, finally becoming an issue of the

Supreme Court. They then could not get the nine men free until Ruby Bates the accuser came out and told the truth. “...Bates' own testimony that she and Price made up the story…” ( “ The Scottsboro Boys’ Case” ). As a result four of the boys were set free but were later arrested again for other convctions. The other four however, were not set free due to crimes they were already convicted for, and many ended up dying in prison as a result. The four boys that were free had attempted to release the other four imrpisoned boys however, they would be arrested due to crimes such as rape, and assault. Over the course of the next few years, Ozzie would be shot by the sheriff because of revolting as well as, Patterson being convicted of rape again and goes back to prison. Of the four released Eugene Williams was the only one that was not convicted of any crime after that. Andrew Wright will be the last to be set free in

the prisoners were lucky enough to escape the being lynched when they were moved into Scottsboro. In this trial, nine young, black boys were charged with the rape of two white girls while on a train. This case was a major source of controversy in the 1930’s. “Despite testimony by doctors who had examined the women that no rape had occurred, the all- white jury convicted the nine, and all but the youngest, who was 12 years old were sentenced to death” (“Scottsboro”). The boys’ lawyer, Samuel Leibowitz, did not even get assigned to the case until the first day of the trial. “If he could show a jury that these nine boys were innocent, as the record indicated, the jury would surely free them. To Leibowitz, that was simple!” (Chalmers 35). However, it was not that simple. Many white citizens would not change their minds about

There are many basic parallels between the Scottsboro Trial and Tom Robinson’s Trial, in To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. As Harper Lee grew, up, she was surrounded with news of the Scottsboro Trial, which had a large impact in her novel. But there are also many deeper parallels between these two. Both trials contained African-American(s) being accused of rape to a white woman, but Lee had a way to show this through a child’s eyes, presumably, her as a young child experiencing the Scottsboro Trials firsthand. The characters involved within Tom’s Trial are also fabricated from the people involved with the Scottsboro Trial. There are many examples within both texts to prove these statements. The Scottsboro Trial is filled

In Harper Lee’s classic, To Kill A Mockingbird, “Tom was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed” (Lee, 245). As To Kill A Mockingbird takes place in the 1930’s, for a white woman to accuse a man of color of committing a crime would mean that the man has been declared guilty before they are given a chance to defend themselves, leading to false convictions. Even if they were to be given the chance to try to save themselves from an unjust verdict, the juries normally consisted of white men, consequently leading to an inevitable conviction. With Tom Robinson being a black man and Mayella Ewell being a white woman, this was the reality for Tom when he was accused of raping Mayella. With this accusation, it became very clear who exactly had been infected with “Maycomb’s usual disease”(Lee, 91) especially Bob Ewell, Mayella’s father. Racism and injustice are both heavy influences in To Kill A Mockingbird as the story takes place in 1930 where many white people had racist views towards people of color, giving white people a higher status in Maycomb County, Alabama, thus giving them more power than people of color. This played a large role in one of the bigger conflicts in the story with Bob Ewell and Tom Robinson as the two men hold to different social statuses showing everyone their true colors. Throughout the novel we are presented with numerous quotes showing how Tom Robinson and Mr. Bob Ewell acted before the trial and how the trial has showed us what their true intentions are.

One particular warm summer day, just a few hours after noon in the “tired old town” of Maycomb, the Finch household was unusually quiet(6. Lee). So quiet you can hear a pin drop1. Atticus had gone out, the children were nowhere to be seen, and even Calpurnia was away visiting family claiming they could live a day without her. That left ”Aunt” Alexandra Hancock in the house all alone.