Scottsboro Trials and to Kill a Mockingbird

The events in the novel also relate to the events in the United States that are occurring right now. Just like the Finch family gets abused by the town of Maycomb for defending Tom Robinson. Many times in the United States this is happens as well. Judge Olu Stevenson is one example. The judge gets suspended from pay for 90 days for wanting an all-white jury for a black man’s case. This judge gets the same treatment as the Finches do which is not acceptable in today society or in 1930s society.

In the Scottsboro Trials, there were 9 boys all accused falsely of a crime they did not commit. Knowing how much worse the racist back in the early 1900s was shows we have come a long way, but are still far from a completely non-racist world. To Kill A Mockingbird is also a great example on how things were back then, seeing as the two cases carry the nearly exact same things. Both were falsely accused by poor white women that had no medical evidence provided at the ‘crime scene’. Both of these things were horrible things, but have helped us move on from our past mistakes. In today’s world, most of the racism has moved on from blacks, but is still there, and onto the Middle Eastern population. Hopefully, people will learn from our mistakes

To start, I will predict the case verdict of Tom Robinson. There is reasoning why he is guilty, and reasoning why he may not guilty. The first evidence that, he is guilty is that no black man has won a trial against a white person in court during that point in time. During that point in time racism was extremely common. Whites looked down at blacks just because the color of their skin. From their perspective, they were the part of the hierarchy, while the black were considered apart of the lower class. The whites thought that by putting the blacks down it was there from of authority, and showing their power. From that you can see that the chances of Tom, a black man wining a case against a white woman were slim. In addition, is when Mayella testified her story. When she first got up the chair she started to cry, she said it was because of Atticus scaring her.

Although during the 1950’s it was said to be “separate but equal” the African Americans were still treated with disrespect like sitting in the back of the bus or even had to use a separate bathroom than white people, so when the trial started most of the people would believe the “victims” story since she was white. This trial would not even happened if Tom Robinson would have walked passed Mayella instead of helping her with a dresser that was clearly not in need of being fixed.Which the Mockingbird represents all that is good and Tom Robinson is obviously a prime example of that because no matter what was thrown at him he still helped people when they

Most of the second part of Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird is Tom Robinson’s trial. Atticus, being the defendant, has a lot to say about justice and where it is deserved. Throughout the story, justice, or therefore lack of, is a recurrent theme, and it is most commonly seen surrounding Tom’s trial. The evidence of the trial and testimonies from witnesses clearly showed that Tom Robinson was innocent, but the jury convicted him guilty purely because of his race: black. Scout realizes the meaning of this true injustice and thinks, “Atticus had used every tool available to free men to save Tom Robinson, but in the secret courts of men's hearts Atticus had no case. Tom was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed” (Lee 323). Harper Lee is using this situation and the literary device of conflict to show that justice is rarely

In the book “To Kill a Mocking Bird” there is a character by the name of Mayella Ewell that accuses an African American, Tom Robinson of rape. This Fictional book relates to a non-fictional trial that had happened called the Hillsboro Trail. The two trials are able to relate because of a few reasons, one being how society influence these trials. Hannah Arendt once said “The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil.” In the trials, people had been influenced by society in many ways. It made people like Tom Robinson, or the Scottsboro boys get falsely accused for rape just because society during their time period had prejudice towards African American people. Society also influenced how Mayella,

Another reason that prevented black people a fair trial, was that lies were told, and readily accepted. The black community was not given any credibility inside, nor outside of the courthouse. The Scottsboro Boys Trial is a perfect example of a case built around

During the 1930s a majority of the world’s attention has turned to a very cruel case of the Scottsboro boys. The Scottsboro boys were nine black youths who were hitching a ride on a train looking for jobs to make a living for themselves. Soon after they got on the train there was a fight that had broken out between the black boys and a few white hobos. The Scottsboro boys managed to over throw the white men and stay on the train. At the next stop the police were waiting and heavily armed and took them to jail. As they were being charged for assault, two white women dressed in men’s cloths came out of the same train. Although there was no evidence the women agreed to charge the black men of rape. The jury then decided to sentence all to death accept the one twelve year old boy. After the decision there was a big roaring protest that had broken out in the north. Riots had broken out on the streets and in courts and lots of the people in the riots and one man named Patterson was convicted of the crime but the judge had overthrown the verdict and let him go. Later on he was convicted again and sentenced to 75 years in jail. Later Alabama freed the four youngest defendants of the Scottsboro group, who served for six years and then later paroled all the rest but Patterson who later escaped and was found three years later and died in prison. (Jim Crow PBS). This also may have influenced the

Many of these cases involved a black male being accused of a crime they didn’t commit. For instance, “ Shields argues persuasively that Lee’s novel more closely reflected the less infamous 1933 case of Walter Lett, a black man accused of raping a white woman” (Best) this proves that Lee understood the tragedy that was happening in the south and wanted to demonstrates how blacks were treated in her novel. Moreover, “To Kill a Mockingbird is the structural and ideological detail of the Emmett Till trial of 1955, which upon close consideration seems unquestionably to have provided a workable model for aspects of Lee’s fictional Tom Robinson trial”. (Chura) in Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird Tom’s case helped understand how the other cases in history were won due to racists being put on jury. This further proves that racism will continue in the south even in places where the law is supposed to be protecting

Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” is set in a small Southern United States community called Maycomb during the Great Depression era. Even though the whole book primarily revolves around Scout and her life of growing up, she also learns about segregation and racism and how it relates to Maycomb’s history. It eventually leads to the trial of Tom Robinson where he is accused of beating up and raping Mayella Ewell. Even though it was clear that Tom Robinson did not do anything wrong, he was convicted by an all white jury simply because he was black. The trial of Tom Robinson and its verdict shows an example of how segregation in the court system prevents fair trials from occurring.

When first reading the book, To Kill a Mockingbird, the importance of social and historical context is immense. The magnitude of social inequality in this book relates to what was happening during that time period. The prejudice of what happened to Tom Robinson links to what occurred to the Scottsboro boys because both were convicted based on their skin color and not on the evidence. At that time, people hated anyone whose skin color wasn’t white. The evidence is clear whether its segregation, inequitable court rooms, and this is why the jury disregarded the evidence and sentenced Tom Robinson for something that he didn’t do.

The Scottsboro nine took place in the 1930s. Nine black boys were falsely accused of rapping two white women. The boys went to trial, where they were found guilty. The Scottsboro case was very similar to a case in the book, the Tom Robinson case. A black man, named Tom Robinson, was falsely accused of rapping a white woman. Tom was found guilty and was sent off to jail. This gives you an idea of how the society viewed

To Kill a Mockingbird echoes themes of racial injustice and a flawed court system. Tom Robinson’s trial relates to the Scottsboro Case in 1939. Both cases, fiction and reality, show how the process within the court system is truly imperfect. The push of Jim Crow Laws during the 1930s gave people a deep seeded hatred towards African Americans. Many were wrongly convicted due to either the color of their skin or their social status. Many reforms went in place in order to create an equal and fair judicial system however the case of wrongful convictions reigns true today, with a majority of men sent on death row either being discriminated based on race or convicted despite lack of evidence. This issue continues to plague the belief that all men are created equal. Many tried to pour their issues onto African Americans as a scapegoat to avoid society’s everlasting judgment. Many court cases throughout history prove that discrimination is an absolute issue in a place where it shouldn’t be. The theme of racial injustice being a determining factor in the court system is exemplified in The Scottsboro Case, To Kill a Mockingbird, and currently on death row.

A black man, Tom Robinson was accused of raping Mayella Ewell, a white nineteen year old women. Harper Lee knew that uring the 1930s, Whites in the south could not believe that a women would falsely accuse someone of rape because they believed they were pure. Today, there is still disparagement against African Americans and would affect the overall trial. The trail in To Kill a Mockingbird took place in the southern 1930s which meant the jury and the judge were racist white males. In Alabama 2016 juries are still a problem and would not ensure a fair trial. Although, if tried in Alabama of 2016, Tom Robinson would be discriminated for his race but ultimately would not be convicted.

The Scottsboro of 1931 was nine boys (African Americans) were accused of the rape of two white women in Scottsboro Alabama. After a long trial being lengthy and public five of the nine boys were sentenced to long prison terms. The ladies later came forward many years later admitting they had falsely accused the men and the semen was from the night before. Tom Robinson’s case in the book was shaped around and based off of the Scottsboro case. Tom was being and was falsely convicted but it was not bad enough