Theme Of Segregation In To Kill A Mockingbird

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A third similarity between the lives of Scout and Harper Lee is their cities and settings. Lee lived in Monroeville, Alabama while Scout lived in Maycomb, Alabama. During the 1930s, Monroeville was presented with cases of African American men supposedly committing violent acts against whites. The city’s population always decided to convict the African American men and execute them. The video clip “Setting: A Portrait of a Southern Town in the 1930s” summarizes the conditions Monroeville went through during the Great Depression. The video clip explains how poor and desperate the population of Monroeville was. Combined with decades of racism, the white population exploded at the African American population, brutally executing and killing them…show more content…
Throughout most of the Southern United States, African Americans were not treated as equals to whites in court. African Americans were commonly found guilty, criticized in front of their friends, and forced to watch a miscarriage of justice. Even worse, African Americans were unable to fully see the engagement; instead, they were forced to sit in a higher balcony or in the back rows. Even the defendant’s family and friends were unable to sit near him/her and offer support and reassurances. The article “Discrimination in Public Accommodations” offers a broad look into many types of segregation in the Deep South by noting, “Justice, too, was not color-blind. Courtrooms contained Bibles marked ‘White or colored;’ African Americans were seated in the back of the courtroom” ( “Discrimination” par. 3). Similarly, African Americans were neglected during the trial of Tom Robinson. Because of their race, the African American population of Maycomb was required to watch the events from a higher level, where it was humid and uncomfortable. Scout said, “We went up a covered…show more content…
This similarity shows the racism African Americans face in the courtroom. Even families and friends of the defendants are forced to watch the trial from the balcony. This type of racism ensures that African American defendants will not receive the emotional support required in facing a trial and will be unable to face prosecutors, convincing the jury to convict them. Another example of racism in To Kill a Mockingbird that can be found in modern America would be the lynching of African American men accused of rape by white men. After the Civil War, many white men and women were afraid of African American strength. They wondered if any African American man can simply use their strength to take advantage of people, including women. As a result, in a white man’s point of view, any rape committed by an African American man has to be taken seriously. Otherwise, it would lead to more rapes and murders. One man in modern America who was lynched due to an accusation of rape was Thomas Shipp. The article “An Iconic Lynching in the North” describes the
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