TKAM in Context 1

Harper Lee

Nelle Harper Lee was born on April 28, 1926, in Monroeville, AL, a small town similar in many ways to Maycomb, the setting of To Kill a Mockingbird.

Like Scout's father in the novel, Harper Lee's father was a lawyer.

One of Lee's closest childhood friends was another Alabama writer, Truman Capote. It is said that the character Dill is based on Capote.

Despite the similarities between Lee's life and the novel, she says that the novel wasn't meant to represent her hometown, but rather any Southern town.

Other events in the novel are also based on events that occurred during Lee's childhood.

In 1931, when Lee was five, nine young black men were accused of raping two white women near Scottsboro, AL. This became known as the Scottsboro Case.

The American South

The Scottsboro Case began in 1931 when 9 young black boys, ranging in ages 13 to 19 were accused of raping two white women, Victoria Price and Ruby Bates.

The 1950's American South

Even though the evidence was very weak and those who testified against the boys contradicted one another, the young boys were convicted and sentenced to death upon the decision of the all-white jury.

The case quickly gained national recognition and eventually came before the Supreme Court where the death sentences were overturned.

Despite the fact that one of the women eventually denied being raped, the boys were still convicted and all served some time in prison (other than one who escaped).

TKAM in Context 2

The Emmett Till Story

A similar case occurred in August of 1955, just five years before the novel was published.

A 14 year old black boy from Chicago, named Emmett Till, was visiting Mississippi for the first time. He had never been to the South and was unfamiliar with the Jim Crow Laws.

Jim Crow Laws: state and local laws in the South between 1876 and 1965. They mandated "separate but equal" status for black Americans.

In reality, this led to treatment and accommodations that were almost always inferior to those provided to white Americans.

Emmett Till was brutally murdered by two men after being accused of flirting with a white woman in a store. Although the two killers were arrested and charged for murder, they were both quickly acquitted by the all-white, all-male jury.

If not for the daring decision made by his mother, Mamie Till, to leave her son's casket open at the funeral, the case may have been quickly forgotten.

Tens of thousands of people viewed his body, which was on display for four days at a Chicago church.

Also, photographs of his mangled body flooded the nation.

These gruesome images shocked many Americans out of their comfortable complacency and served as a spark for the Civil Rights Movement.

Three months after this incident, the Montgomery Bus Boycott began.