Historical 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 -Aidan
The Jim Crow era impacted the entire United States. African Americans were mainly affected because of there color. What marked the beginning of the Jim Crow era was the emancipation proclamation. It was a law that Abraham Lincoln passed that set about 3 million african slaves in the northern United States free, But the south still ignored the ruling. Later the thirteenth Amendment Marked the end of slavery. The south was still against African Americans because of there color. Jim Crow Law is any of the laws that enforced racial segregation in the southern United States. Jim Crow made African Americans second class compared to whites. These laws enforced separation Between Blacks and Whites, for example there would be separate bathrooms, different drinking fountains, even separate schools. Christian Ministers even preached that Whites were the chosen race. They said God created African Americans to be servants and that he supported racial segregation. There was a list of things African Americans couldn't do wile talking to a White. Never assert that a white person is lying, Never impute dishonorable intentions to a white person. Never suggest a white person is of inferior status, Never lay or claim you are more intelligent, Never curse a white person, Never laugh at a white person, and Never comment upon the appearance of a white person. Jim Crow made it so African Americans were treated unfairly and cruelly. Jim Crow also banned any relation between a Black man and a White women. Lynchings were the worst part of Jim Crow. A lynch mob would murder A African American if they did anything against or seemed like it was against Jim Crow. At first these mobs killed both Blacks and Whites but used Jim Crow as a way to legally kill African Americans. All lynching happened in Southern and Border States. Many claimed that although it was distasteful it was necessary to keep African Americans in line. Many lynchers were arrested but never convicted because they were just killing African Americans. Jim Crow started falling in 1954 when it was considered unconstitutional because it denied a entire race of equal rights.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/struggle_court2.html
http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/what.htm
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/303897/Jim-Crow-law
Alabama, 1950/Mississippi River Delta, 1950 - Nick
In the 1950’s segregation was distributed and legally enforced throughout the American south. Birmingham, Alabama was a hotspot of "black involvement" in opposition to segregationist policies. Between December 26, 1956 and November 1958, the "Birmingham blacks", led by Fred Shuttlesworth and other black ministers, initiated a campaign against legal segregation of Birmingham buses. On December 20, 1956, Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth sent out a statement on TV stating that unless Birmingham buses were desegregated in the next six days, blacks, specifically members of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights. The "blacks" would desegregate the buses themselves. Five days later, Shuttlesworth’s house was bombed by white supremacists. Shuttlesworth’s family was fine, they survived but only with minor injuries. The next day, Shuttlesworth urged members of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights, to follow him in a protest over bus segregation. Shuttlesworth and his supporters boarded city buses, but they refused to sit in the back of the bus. African-Americans were forced to sit in the back of buses. The protesters were polite and kind and after many hours of non-intervention, police arrested twenty-one protesters.
http://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/african-americans-birmingham-alabama-protest-segregation-1956-1958
Scottsboro Trials, 1930 - Ray
In 1931, hoboing was very common and popular. For some, riding freights was an appealing adventure while others hopped rail cars to move from one fruitless job search to the next. That year, two dozen or so mainly male--and mainly young--whites and blacks rode the Southern Railroad's Chattanooga to Memphis freight on March 25, 1931. Among them were four black Chattanooga teenagers hoping to get government jobs in Memphis hauling logs on the river and five other black teens from various parts of Georgia. Four young whites, two males and two females dressed in overalls, also rode the train. Soon after the train crossed the Alabama border, a white youth walked across the top of a tank car. He stepped on the hand of a black youth, Haywood Patterson, who was hanging on to its side. Patterson had friends aboard the train. A stone-throwing fight erupted between white teens and a larger group of black teens. Eventually, the blacks succeeded in forcing all but one of the members of the white gang off the train who Patterson pulled back onto the train after it had accelerated to a life-endangering speed. Some of the whites forced off the train went to report what they described as an assault by a gang of blacks. Dozens of men with guns rushed at the train as it ground to a halt. The armed men rounded up every black youth they could find. Nine captured blacks, soon to be called "The Scottsboro Boys," were tied together and taken to a jail in Scottsboro. They were greeted by Victoria Price and Ruby Bates. One or the other of the girls told one of the posse members that they had been raped by a gang of twelve blacks with pistols and knives. Price pointed out six of the nine boys and said that they were the ones who raped her. The guard reportedly replied, "If those six had Miss Price, it stands to reason that the others had Miss Bates." When one of the accused,Clarence Norris, called the girls liars he was struck by a bayonet. Trials of the Scottsboro Boys began twelve days after their arrest in the courtroom of Judge A. E. Hawkins. Haywood Patterson described the scene as "one big smiling white face." Many local newspapers had made their conclusions about the defendants before the trials began.
The significance of this event is that it demonstrated just how racist the majority of the world was to blacks in the early years of America. The black teenagers were falsely accused because they were mistakenly resembled a group of other black teens. The media and populous were easily persuaded because many people believed the black population to be evil and dirty.
Jim Crow Era -Aidan
The Jim Crow era impacted the entire United States. African Americans were mainly affected because of there color. What marked the beginning of the Jim Crow era was the emancipation proclamation. It was a law that Abraham Lincoln passed that set about 3 million african slaves in the northern United States free, But the south still ignored the ruling. Later the thirteenth Amendment Marked the end of slavery. The south was still against African Americans because of there color. Jim Crow Law is any of the laws that enforced racial segregation in the southern United States. Jim Crow made African Americans second class compared to whites. These laws enforced separation Between Blacks and Whites, for example there would be separate bathrooms, different drinking fountains, even separate schools. Christian Ministers even preached that Whites were the chosen race. They said God created African Americans to be servants and that he supported racial segregation. There was a list of things African Americans couldn't do wile talking to a White. Never assert that a white person is lying, Never impute dishonorable intentions to a white person. Never suggest a white person is of inferior status, Never lay or claim you are more intelligent, Never curse a white person, Never laugh at a white person, and Never comment upon the appearance of a white person. Jim Crow made it so African Americans were treated unfairly and cruelly. Jim Crow also banned any relation between a Black man and a White women. Lynchings were the worst part of Jim Crow. A lynch mob would murder A African American if they did anything against or seemed like it was against Jim Crow. At first these mobs killed both Blacks and Whites but used Jim Crow as a way to legally kill African Americans. All lynching happened in Southern and Border States. Many claimed that although it was distasteful it was necessary to keep African Americans in line. Many lynchers were arrested but never convicted because they were just killing African Americans. Jim Crow started falling in 1954 when it was considered unconstitutional because it denied a entire race of equal rights.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/struggle_court2.html
http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/what.htm
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/303897/Jim-Crow-law
Alabama, 1950/Mississippi River Delta, 1950 - Nick
In the 1950’s segregation was distributed and legally enforced throughout the American south. Birmingham, Alabama was a hotspot of "black involvement" in opposition to segregationist policies. Between December 26, 1956 and November 1958, the "Birmingham blacks", led by Fred Shuttlesworth and other black ministers, initiated a campaign against legal segregation of Birmingham buses. On December 20, 1956, Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth sent out a statement on TV stating that unless Birmingham buses were desegregated in the next six days, blacks, specifically members of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights. The "blacks" would desegregate the buses themselves. Five days later, Shuttlesworth’s house was bombed by white supremacists. Shuttlesworth’s family was fine, they survived but only with minor injuries. The next day, Shuttlesworth urged members of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights, to follow him in a protest over bus segregation. Shuttlesworth and his supporters boarded city buses, but they refused to sit in the back of the bus. African-Americans were forced to sit in the back of buses. The protesters were polite and kind and after many hours of non-intervention, police arrested twenty-one protesters.
http://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/african-americans-birmingham-alabama-protest-segregation-1956-1958
Scottsboro Trials, 1930 - Ray
In 1931, hoboing was very common and popular. For some, riding freights was an appealing adventure while others hopped rail cars to move from one fruitless job search to the next. That year, two dozen or so mainly male--and mainly young--whites and blacks rode the Southern Railroad's Chattanooga to Memphis freight on March 25, 1931. Among them were four black Chattanooga teenagers hoping to get government jobs in Memphis hauling logs on the river and five other black teens from various parts of Georgia. Four young whites, two males and two females dressed in overalls, also rode the train. Soon after the train crossed the Alabama border, a white youth walked across the top of a tank car. He stepped on the hand of a black youth, Haywood Patterson, who was hanging on to its side. Patterson had friends aboard the train. A stone-throwing fight erupted between white teens and a larger group of black teens. Eventually, the blacks succeeded in forcing all but one of the members of the white gang off the train who Patterson pulled back onto the train after it had accelerated to a life-endangering speed. Some of the whites forced off the train went to report what they described as an assault by a gang of blacks. Dozens of men with guns rushed at the train as it ground to a halt. The armed men rounded up every black youth they could find. Nine captured blacks, soon to be called "The Scottsboro Boys," were tied together and taken to a jail in Scottsboro. They were greeted by Victoria Price and Ruby Bates. One or the other of the girls told one of the posse members that they had been raped by a gang of twelve blacks with pistols and knives. Price pointed out six of the nine boys and said that they were the ones who raped her. The guard reportedly replied, "If those six had Miss Price, it stands to reason that the others had Miss Bates." When one of the accused,Clarence Norris, called the girls liars he was struck by a bayonet. Trials of the Scottsboro Boys began twelve days after their arrest in the courtroom of Judge A. E. Hawkins. Haywood Patterson described the scene as "one big smiling white face." Many local newspapers had made their conclusions about the defendants before the trials began.
The significance of this event is that it demonstrated just how racist the majority of the world was to blacks in the early years of America. The black teenagers were falsely accused because they were mistakenly resembled a group of other black teens. The media and populous were easily persuaded because many people believed the black population to be evil and dirty.