History context
It is important to understand the historical context of the novel To Kill A Mockingbird in order to accurately reflect on the events that take place during the reading. Three topics have been identified below for you to research. In your research you should identify the significance of each event as they relate to history. As you read To Kill A Mockingbird you should then relate your research to the topics and events discussed in the novel. Including images, videos, advertisements, news articles from the time period and citing textual evidence for each topic is a must.
Jim Crow Era
-Daniel Setiabudi The Jim Crow era was the time period between 1877 through the 1960s, where racial segregation against African Americans was reinforced thoroughly. These set of laws mainly affected Africans Americans in the South, forcing the African Americans to be at the bottom of the racial pyramid, even allowing violence to enforce it. These set of laws made African Americans be treated as second class citizens, while white people were always first priority in everything. The laws discouraged any contact between African Americans and whites to prevent the two races to be seen as equals. An example of the Jim Crow laws are stated from the website Ferris.edu saying, “Jim Crow was more than a series of rigid anti-black laws. It was a way of life. Under Jim Crow, African Americans were relegated to the status of second class citizens. Jim Crow represented the legitimization of anti-black racism.” More links: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/ http://newsreel.org/nav/title.asp?tc=CN0147 Sources: www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/what.htm |
Alabama, 1950/Mississippi River Delta, 1950
-Matthew Yuhico In the 1950s and '60s, Alabama was the site of such landmark civil-rights actions, such as the bus boycott in Montgomery and the “Freedom March” from Selma to Montgomery. From the late 1930s through the 1950s, the Mississippi Delta experienced an agriculture boom, as wartime needs expanded the demand for the Delta region’s farm products. As the mechanization of agriculture continued, women continued to leave the fields and go into service work, while the men drove tractors and worked on the farms. A Video of "Freedom March" http://www.history.com/topics/selma-montgomery-march/videos |
Scottsboro Trials, 1930
-Jeremy Valtairo The Scottsboro trials took place in the 1930's, which involve "the Scottsboro Boys." The Scottsboro Boys were made up of nine black youths, or teenagers. These nine black youths, or teenagers, were accused of raping two white women, Victoria Price and Ruby Bates. The story was that four white youths and nine black youths were aboard a train to leave Alabama. These youths were in search of jobs. During the train ride, one white youth, a man, was walking on top of one of the cars. He stepped on the hand of Haywood Patterson, a black youth, who was hanging on to the side of the same car. This then elevated to a stone-throwing fight. Obviously, the black youths won, and threw two white youths, which were men, off the train. The two white women were still there. The two white youths then reported this to the nearby stationmaster, and the stationmaster then called for the train to be stopped in the next stop. Police officers stopped the train on the next stop, arrested the nine black youths, and put them in jail. After the arrest, the nine black youths were accused of raping both the white women on the train, which were Victoria Price and Ruby Bates. This created an argument between the North and South. The North thought that the black youths were innocent, but the South thought the black youths were guilty. Trials took place to determine who was right. The Scottsboro Boys were found innocent. Then, Haywood Patterson was sentenced to 75 years in prison. There further convictions of the rest of the black youths, but the four youngest black youths were freed because of the pressure between the North and South. All were paroled but Patterson. Haywood Patterson escaped jail in 1948 and fled to Michigan. But, police officers caught him and was convicted of manslaughter. He then died in prison. Sources: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_events_scotts.html http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/FTrials/scottsboro/SB_acct.html |