To Kill a
Mockingbird
By:
Harper Lee
Nelle Harper Lee
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Born in April 1926 in Monroeville,
Alabama, a rural southern town
Grew up in 1930’s
Her father, Amasa Lee, was an
attorney who served in Alabama
state legislature
Avid reader as child
Was 6 years old when Scottsboro
trials were covered in state and local
papers.
Studied law in college
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When she created Mockingbird, she was told it
was a series of short stories and urged to revise it.
She worked on it for an additional two years
before it was published.
It was published in 1960- a time of chaotic events
and racial strife as Civil Rights movement grew
violent and spread across the nation.
Alabama was in the news because of
Montgomery bus boycott, Martin
Luther King’s rise, etc.
 Lee wrote Mockingbird during the
beginning of the Civil Rights era
(1955-1958).
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There’s More!
Novel shot to top of best seller list.
 Made remarkable impact on a divided
nation.
 Book was Pulitzer Prize winner in 1961.
 Based upon many real people and events.
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What do you already know?
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Think back to what you have learned about the
Civil Rights Movement in your history classes.
Make a list of everything you can remember.
Share with a partner
Compare your list to what I have on the Power
Point.
Events during
Civil Rights
Movement
1954: Brown vs. Board of Education Topeka,
Kansas: Supreme Court rules that public
school segregation is illegal. Blacks to be
integrated with whites.
1955: 14 year old boy beaten in Chicago
for allegedly whistling at a white woman in a
store. Also, Rosa Parks refuses to give up
bus seat.
 1956: Autherine Lucy is first black person to
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admitted to University of Alabama.
ML King’s home is bombed after successful
Montgomery bus boycott.
Motions filed in U.S. District Court calling for an end
to bus segregation.
Violence erupts on campus of U of Alabama forcing
Autherine Lucy to flee from the campus.
She is then barred from the school.
Montgomery bus boycott ends in victory on Dec. 21.
African-Americans board the first desegregated bus in
Montgomery!
1957: Federal troops sent to Little Rock,
Arkansas to protect nine black students at
Central High School. White mobs were
trying to block the school’s integration .
1960: Greensboro, North Carolina: first
lunch counter sit-in by four black college
students—inspires more throughout South.
TKAM is published.
1961: First black student admitted to U of
Miss. Violence breaks out due to the
integration.
1963: Over ¼ million people participate in
March on Washington and hear ML King
deliver “I Have a Dream” speech.
Birmingham church is bombed in Sept.,
killing 4 black girls.
1964: 3 civil rights workers are kidnapped
and murdered by white law enforcement
officers and members of KKK. (film-Mississippi Burning)
1965: March for Voting Rights is held in
Alabama. Voting Rights Act passes and
signed into law: ends literacy tests and
other obstacles stopping minorities to vote.
Did you have any of the events on
your list?
Setting
Story takes place in the small, fictional
town of Maycomb, Alabama.
 The time period was during the Great
Depression.
 Segregation was still enforced.
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Great Depression began when
the stock market crashed in
October, 1929
 Businesses failed
 Factories closed
– People were out of work
– Even people with money
– suffered because nothing was being produced
for sale.
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People who lost their homes
were forced to “live off the land.”
The Great
Depression
Extra Strain for Southern Farmers
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Southern farmers were under great economic
stress long before the stock market crash of 1929.
They were faced with agricultural depression in
the early 1920’s.
In 1927 they contended with the effects of the
Mississippi flood.
To make things worse, they were hit by a drought
in the early 1930’s
Scottsboro Trials
Add to Setting and Plot
There are many parallels between the trial of
Tom Robinson in TKAM and one of the most
famous trials in Nation’s history: the
Scottsboro Trials.
On March 25, 1931, a freight train stopped in
Paint Rock Alabama and 9 young black men,
ages 13-21, were arrested because two white
women, one who were underage, accused
the men of raping them while on the train.
Within a month, one of the men was found
guilty and sentenced to death.
 A series of trials began afterwards,
condemning the other men solely on the
testimony of the older woman who was a
known prostitute.
 This prostitute, Ruby Bates, was avoiding
being tried herself for having brought a minor
across state lines for the illegal purpose of
prostitution.
 By the way, it was an all white jury.
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Although none of the men were executed, many
of them remained on death row for years.
The case was
not settled until
1976 with a
pardon of the
last of the
Scottsboro
defendants. All
were found
innocent.
Scottsboro VS. Robinson
Scottsboro
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Takes place in 1930’s
Northern Alabama
Charge of rape from
white women against
black men
Poor white status of
accusers is a critical
issue
Central figure is heroic
white lawyer who
overturned a guilty
verdict against the
black men
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Robinson
1930’s
Southern Alabama
Charge of rape from
white woman against
a black man
Poor white status of
Mayella (accuser) is
critical issue
Central figure is
Atticus, lawyer, who
defends black man.
Point of View
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First person
– Story is told by Scout, a 10-year-old girl
– Harper Lee is actually a woman; Scout
represents the author as a little girl although
the story is not strictly autobiographical
Plot: 3 stories in
one!
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Scout, Jem, and Dill are
fascinated with Boo
Radley.
Atticus agrees to defend
Tom Robinson, a black
man, in a rape trial.
Bob Ewell and the Finch
family are in conflict.
Themes
1. Racism/Prejudice
2. End of innocence/Maturity
3. Justice
Enjoy
the
book!