Similarities Between Scottsboro Trial And To Kill A Mockingbird

History can be a great influence in fictional stories and events. The character Tom Robinson from the book To Kill a Mockingbird has a very close resemblance with the real life event of the Scottsboro trial seeing as Tom Robinson was falsely accused of raping a white woman and the Scottsboro boys where a group of black teenagers who were also falsely accused of raping two white girls. There are many similarities as well as differences between these stories, but they both show the reality that is racism in the legal system. Many comparisons can be made between the two trials of Tom Robinson and the Scottsboro Boys. One comparison could be the fact that both Tom Robinson and the Scottsboro boys had everything they needed to be pronounced innocent,

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

Moral courage is making the right choice instead of the easier one. This is shown in both the Scottsboro Boys trial and To Kill a Mockingbird. In the novel, a black man is accused of raping a white woman. In the Scottsboro Boys trial, nine black teenagers are being accused of raping two white women. Both of these trials take place during a racist time period, giving the defense a disadvantage. Signs of moral courage is shown when others chose to defend Scottsboro boys and Tom Robinson, but cowardliness is also shown as people take the easy way out.

Back in the painfully segregated deep South of America, many blacks suffered from an actionless crime, that was the color of their skin. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch is a lawyer that defends everyone, including blacks and whites, in Maycomb County, Alabama. Situated on a case in which he defends Tom Robinson, a Negro accused of rape by a white woman, Atticus is able to display his leadership by teaching his two children, Jean Louise “Scout” Finch and Jeremy “Jem” Finch, that a community with prejudice and racism towards anybody is shameful, and therefore should not exist. In addition, the article, “The Scottsboro Boys”, written by Douglas O. Linder, and Martin Luther King Jr's “I Have a Dream” speech show audiences a point of view through the eyes of a Black American of the harsh reality of racial discrimination. During the early 1900’s, segregation and racial prejudice against blacks were both big issues that a majority of society failed to see as problems, but brave leaders were able to notice the fault in them, and help the reshape society for the good of both blacks and whites.

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

Moral courage means the courage to take action for moral reasons, despite the chances of any consequences. Courage is required to take risks when they fear the outcome. Therefore, moral courage involves careful thinking and contemplation. When Harper Lee was a young girl, she was at the Scottsboro Trial. During the Scottsboro Trial, there were 9 African American teenagers who were accused of raping two white American females on a train.

I think that Harper Lee was inspired by the events of the Scottsboro Boys to write To Kill a Mockingbird based of the following evidence. Several of the characters in To Kill a Mockingbird are very similar to people that were involved in the Scottsboro Boys trials. The setting in a small Alabama town are similar and that both of the accoused rapes are both under similar circumstances that a black man was accused by a white women. This essay will be comparing characters from the book to real people from the Scottsboro Boys trials. Including Haywood Patterson, Tom Robinson, Victoria Price, Mayella Ewell, Samuel Leibowitz, and Atticus Finch.

All throughout history men, women and children were treated poorly because of their colour; African-Americans were demeaned by society in many ways from as simple as the segregation of public washrooms to being wrongly convicted for a crime they did not commit. The time period in which Harper Lee’s novel is set, the 1930’s, society judged their opinions on the colour of one’s skin. Lee demonstrates themes including racial discrimination and the right to a fair trial to prove this point. To Kill a Mockingbird is a fictional story following the journey of the young narrator in the name of Scout Finch through the cruel acts of racism in her town during the 1930’s. Lee demonstrates discrimination in court during this time period using Tom Robinson’s trial, Tom

Firstly, when it came to color the blacks were accused more. According to the scottsboro trial, 9 Blacks were accused of raping two women on a train and two of the boys were only 13 years old with another crippled boy (Jessie) . Also in the book to Kill a Mockingbird Tom Robinson was accused of rapping Mayella and when he was a boy the got his hand caught in a cotton gin and it tougher all the muscles loss of his bone ( Lee, 248-249). In both of these cases tom and the scottsboro boys both were incapable of committing the crime because of the disabilities and age just because they were accused by white people.

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

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 wanted to

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee portrays the effects of a broken justice system. Written in 1960, the book captures the effects of racism and how it effects so many innocent lives every day.

The world is a big place with many different groups of people. Some get along, but some don’t. What would one do when these groups are in conflict? Would they take a man from the opposing group and make them suffer for months or maybe years? Would they give him a chance to get back his freedom only to be thwarted no matter how close he was? That might sound like the plot of the popular book, To Kill a Mockingbird, but it is also the story of nine young men in Scottsboro, Alabama who lived through To Kill a Mockingbird’s tragic racial prejudice. In Maycomb and Scottsboro, the trials put many ethical and societal norms into question. The trials were affected by the racial prejudice that the lawyers of the defense tried to question.

In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird racism was a problem in Maycomb. Atticus quoted, “There’s something in our world that makes men lose their heads—they couldn’t be fair if they tried. In our courts, when it’s a white man’s word against a black man’s, the white man always wins. They’re ugly, but those are the facts of life.” “Lee #224)

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.