By: Nancy MacDonald AN INTRODUCTION TO HARPERghsbears.pbworks.com/f/Introduction+to+TKAM.pdf ·...
Transcript of By: Nancy MacDonald AN INTRODUCTION TO HARPERghsbears.pbworks.com/f/Introduction+to+TKAM.pdf ·...
Main CharactersScout (Jean Louise Finch) – six-year-old narrator of story
Jem (Jeremy Finch) – her older brother
Atticus Finch – Jem and Scout’s father, a prominent lawyer who defends a black man accused of raping a white woman
Arthur (Boo) Radley – a thirty-three-year-old recluse who lives next door
Charles Baker (Dill) Harris – Jem and Scout’s friend who comes to visit his aunt in Maycomb each summer
Tom Robinson – a respectable black man accused of raping a white woman
Calpurnia – the Finches’ black cook
Social Class in the Novel
Wealthy
Country Folk
"White Trash"
Black
Community
This is probably similar to how class structure existed during the 1930’s in the South. The wealthy, although fewest in number, were most powerful. The blacks, although great in number, were lowest on the class ladder, and thus, had the least privileges.
Examples of each social class:
Wealthy - Finches
Country Folk - Cunninghams
“White Trash” – Ewells
Black Community – Tom Robinson
The Roaring 20’s The new concept of
“credit”
People were buying:
Automobiles
Appliances
Clothes
Fun times reigned
Dancing
Flappers
Drinking
Why was this bad?
Credit system People didn’t really have
the money they were spending.
WWI
The U.S. was a major credit loaner to other nations in need.
Many of these nations could not pay us back.
The Stock Market
People bought stocks on margins If a stock is $100 you
can pay $10 now and the rest later when the stock rose
Stocks fall Now the person has
less than $100 and no money to pay back
And then…. With people panicking
about their money investors tried to sell their stocks This leads to a huge decline
in stocks
Stocks were worthless now People who bought on
“margins” now could not pay
Investors were average people that were now broke
Farmers were already feeling the effects Prices of crops went down
Many farms foreclosed
People could not afford luxuries Factories shut down
Businesses went out
Banks could not pay out money
People could not pay their taxes Schools shut down due to lack of funds
Many families became homeless and had to live in shanties
“Hooverville”
Some families were forced to live in shanty towns
A grouping of shacks and tents in vacant lots
They were referred to as “Hooverville” because of President Hoover’s lack of help during the depression.
Major Historical Happenings...
Jim Crow Laws
Scottsboro Trials
Recovering from the Great Depression
Racial Injustice
Poor South
Jim Crow Laws
After the American Civil War most states
in the South passed anti-African
American legislation. These became
known as Jim Crow laws.
These laws included segregation in…
Schools -- Hospitals
Theaters -- Water fountains
Restaurants
Hotels
Public transportation
Some states forbid inter-racial marriages
9 young African-American men (13-20) accused of raping 2 white girls in 1931
Immediately sentenced to death
Trials went on for nearly 15 years before all the men were dismissed
Started on a train bound for Memphis
Several white men boarded and picked a fight with the black men
Whites were forced off train by the 12 black men. The white men reported the black men had raped two white girls on the train to authorities.
They were immediately arrested and tried in front of an all-white jury.
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Scottsboro Case
The Trial
April 6, 1931 – April 9, 1931
Witnesses
Price and Bates
One white man (collaborated)
Nine African-American men
Acquaintance of women (did not collaborate)
Physician
Eight of nine men sentenced to death
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Scottsboro Case
Trial Continues November 7, 1932 United States Supreme
Court orders new trial
March 27, 1933 the new trial begins
Famous New York defense attorney Samuel S. Leibowitz
Two physicians refute that multiple rapes occurred
Ruby Bates openly denies rapes occurred
April 9, 1933 first defendant found guilty
Judge James Horton overturns conviction
April 1, 1935 United States Supreme Court reversed all convictions
Scottsboro Case New trials ordered – the defendants did not have
adequate legal representation. Horton overturned verdict on the grounds that the
evidence presented did not warrant conviction Later in 1933 2nd defendant found guilty –
execution delayed pending appeal Convictions reversed on grounds that qualified
African-Americans had been systematically excluded from all juries in Alabama
None of the men are executed; however, a number remained on death row for many years. The case was not settled until 1976 with the pardon of the last of the Scottsboro defendants.
The Jim Crow laws were instituted in 1896 and were not abolished till the late 1950’s (even then still not completely).
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Parallels Between Scottsboro and Tom Robinson Trials
1930s 1930s
Northern Alabama Southern Alabama
Rape charge by white women
against African-American men
Rape charge by a white woman
against an African-American man
Poor white status of accusers a
critical issue
Poor white status of Mayella a
critical issue
Central figure is a heroic judge Central figure is Atticus, who
defends an African-American
man
Judge goes against public
sentiment
Atticus arouses anger in
community defending Robinson
Jury ignores evidence ??????
Scottsboro Trial Tom Robinson’s Trial