Some Historical Background To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

1
Some Historical BackgroundTo Kill a
Mockingbirdby Harper Lee
2
Jim Crow Laws (Separate but Equal)

• Plessy v. Ferguson 1896
• The Plessy decision set the precedent that
  "separate" facilities for blacks and whites were
  constitutional as long as they were "equal."

3
Tulsa Race Riot, Oklahoma, 1921

• Man falsely accused of raping a white woman
  creates a backlash and race riot in Tulsa,
  Oklahoma.
• 26 blacks and 10 whites are killed

4
Rosewood Massacre, Florida, 1923

• Man falsely accused of raping a white woman
  results in a race riot, completely destroying the
  community of Rosewood
• 8 blacks and 2 whites die

5
Scottsboro Boys, Alabama, 1931

• In the Scottsboro trial, nine black boys were
  accused of the rape of two white girls. The court
  of Alabama sentenced the boys to death.
  Eventually all but two were paroled, but their
  trials and mistrials spanned years with the boys
  serving in prison and losing their youth to
  incarceration.

6
Emmett Till, Mississippi, 1955

• 14 year old who allegedly winked at a white woman
  at a local store and was dragged out of his great
  uncles home in the middle of the night, beaten,
  shot and weighted to the bottom of the
  Tallahatchie River
• Tills mother insisted on an open casket to show
  the injustice to all the world

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Jack Johnson, Boxer 1900-1910s

• The first black man to hold the heavyweight title
• First trash talker among athletes
• Caused white boxing fans to look for a Great
  White Hopea white boxer who could beat him
• Race riots ensued all over the country July 4,
  1910, after beating Great White Hope Jim
  Jeffries

Johnson and Wife
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Pop Culture

• African Americans are non-existent in film or
  television unless playing a stereotypical role
  (Ex In 1939, Hattie McDaniel won the first Oscar
  given to an African-American actor in American
  film. Her roleMammy, a slave on a plantation.)
• African Americans are performing jazz and tap in
  a hot all-white clubs but are not allowed to come
  into the clubs unless performing. They have
  clubs like the Apollo, but the money is in the
  white clubs.
• Music records are sold but black artists are
  generally getting ripped off by the producers.

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American School System

• Schools are segregated in many southern towns
• Brown v. Board of Education did not desegregate
  schools until 1954

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American Justice System

• Very simply put
• All white jury, judge and lawyers
• All male jury, judge and lawyers
• Blind justice is not color blind or gender blind
  until the civil rights and womens movements of
  the 1960s

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Harper Lee

• Published To Kill a Mockingbird in 1960 (the
  novel is set in the 1940s)
• Born in Monroeville, Alabama, and lives there
  today
• Refuses interviews and never wrote another novel
• As we read, think about how civil rights history
  influenced Lees novel and her
  thinking

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To Kill a Mockingbird Today

• By MAUREEN DOWD
• Published Tuesday, August 24, 2010 at 300 a.m.
• At the Bunch of Grapes bookstore on Martha's
  Vineyard, the sojourning President Barack Obama
  bought a few books, including To Kill a
  Mockingbird by Harper Lee. It was for his
  daughter, but it may have also conjured a sweet
  memory for the beleaguered president. Only a
  couple of years ago, when he was campaigning,
  Obama inspired comparisons with the noble lawyer
  Atticus Finch.
• TOP 50 BOOKS OF ALL TIME
• 1. To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee
• 2. Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
• 3. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - C.S
  Lewis
• 4. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
• 5. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
• 6. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
• 7. Animal Farm - George Orwell
• 8. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
• 9. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - JK
  Rowling
• 10. Lord of the Flies - William Golding

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