To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Historical & Social Context
The Great Depression
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The Great Depression began in the
United States on October 29, 1929,
with the stock market crash and
lasted until approximately 1941,
with the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
As stock prices fell with no hope of
recovery, panic struck. Masses and
masses of people tried to sell their
stock, but no one was buying. The
stock market, which had appeared
to be the surest way to become rich,
quickly became the path to
bankruptcy.
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Since many banks had also invested large portions
of their clients' savings in the stock market, these
banks were forced to close when the stock market
crashed. Seeing a few banks close caused another
panic across the country.
Afraid they would lose their own savings, people
rushed to banks that were still open to withdraw
their money. This massive withdrawal of cash
caused additional banks to close.
Since there was no way for a bank's clients to
recover any of their savings once the bank had
closed, those who didn't reach the bank in time
also became bankrupt.
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The Dust Bowl: Farmers were also hard hit not
only by the devastated economy but also by
years of drought, which caused a situation
known as The Dust Bowl.
Many Americans blamed President Hoover
for the economic situation and supported
Franklin D. Roosevelt for President.
Roosevelt promoted his “New Deal,” which
basically promised jobs to Americans who
were hardest hit.
The Jim Crow South
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System of laws and regulations established during
1890s to create legalized segregation
 “Whites
Only” and “Colored” signs on parks, schools,
hotels, water fountains, restrooms, and all modes of
transportation
 Laws against “race-mixing” deemed all marriages
between white and black void and illegal
 Ku Klux Klan membership reaches 6 million
 Lynching (killing of African Americans by a mob without
due process of law) increases – 3,700 occur between
1889-1930
The Scottsboro Boys Trial
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Similar to trial of Tom Robinson we will see in TKAM
9 young African American men accused of raping 2
white women on a train from Tennessee to Alabama
 Testimony
comes from victim – an older prostitute trying
to avoid prosecution herself
 Juries composed of white men ONLY
 1932: 7 of 8 of the adult defendants sentenced to
death on little evidence
 Takes years to overturn convictions; last was overturned
in 1950
Important Dates in History
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1890: Plessy vs. Ferguson Supreme Court case
makes segregation on railroad cars legal
1909: NAACP founded
1910’s: KKK expands
1922: Congress fails to pass anti-lynching bill
Important Dates, continued
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1930s
 1929-1939:
Great Depression – over 25% of labor
force in US is unemployed
 1931: Scottsboro Boys Trial
 1933: FDR becomes president; Hitler becomes
chancellor of Germany
 1936: Jesse Owens wins gold medal in Summer
Olympics in Germany
 1939: WWII begins in Europe with Nazi invasion of
Poland
Important Dates, continued
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1940s
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1950s
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1947: Jackie Robinson signs baseball contract with Brooklyn Dodgers
1948: President Truman ends segregation in the military and
discrimination in federal hiring
1954: Brown vs. Board of Education rules school segregation
unconstitutional
1955: Emmett Till murdered
1955: Rosa Parks refuses to give up her bus seat to a white man in
Montgomery, Alabama
1960s
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1963: MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech delivered; MLK wins Nobel
Peace Prize in 1964
1964: Congress passes Civil Rights Act, enforcing constitutional right to
vote
1965: Malcolm X assassinated
Harper Lee Biography
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1926: Born in Monroeville, Alabama (basis for Maycomb,
Alabama, in TKAM)
1932: Lee befriends Truman Capote, who she will later base
the character of Dill on in TKAM
1949: Lee moves to NYC to become a writer
1959: Lee works as Capote’s assistant as he write his
“nonfiction novel,” In Cold Blood
1960: Published To Kill a Mockingbird, which won the Pulitzer
Prize in 1961
1962: TKAM becomes a movie
1966: In Cold Blood published; Capote and Lee have a
falling out
1999: TKAM named “Best Book of the Century” by Library
Journal
Lee NEVER wrote another novel after TKAM. It is her one and
only large piece of literature.
Themes in TKAM
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The importance of putting oneself in someone else's
shoes (Empathy)
The danger of judging a book by its cover
(Stereotyping)
The true meaning of courage
Fight with your head, not with your hands
The danger of mob mentality (Following the crowd)
Loss of innocence
The importance of small steps towards justice
The coexistence of good and bad in human beings
Symbols & Motifs in TKAM
Motifs: ideas or concepts that are often repeated in a
piece of literature
 Cowardice
 Racism
 Family & Background
 Education (Formal vs. Informal)
 Parenting
 Points of View
Symbol: an person, place, thing, or idea that stands for
itself and something more than itself
 The Mockingbird