The Great Depression (1930s)

1. The Depression hit the South especially hard. Everyone, seemed to be living in poverty. Banks closed down. People could not pay taxes, so many schools shut down. Many people became homeless. Fierce competition for any kind of work. This made the tension between races even worse. The Great Depression (1930s)

2. The Scottsboro Boys Trial – 1931 • Nine black teens are on a train bound for Memphis. • Several white men board the train and pick a fight with the teens. • The white men were forced off of the train by a group of blacks. • The white men, angry, immediately reported that the young black men had “raped two white women.” • The boys were immediately arrested, tried in front of an all white jury, and instantly sentenced to death. Continued….

3. The Supreme Court overturns their conviction. • They are tried again. They are found guilty again. • The Supreme court overturns this conviction. • The trial goes on for nearly 15 years until all men are set free. • The point? It was virtually impossible for a black man to receive a fair trial in the South during this time. • Harper Lee would have been very familiar with this trial as it took place in Alabama, and her father was a lawyer.

4. When the book was written… • To add to the complexity of the story, Harper Lee wrote To Kill a Mockingbird during a time of even greater social turbulence in the United States…the civil rights movement.

5. Dr. Martin Luther King (1929-1968) • African American Leaders began to rally together. Black Americans, began to fight their oppression, and for tried to create a country where all men were truly treated as equals.

6. “ I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." Dr. Martin Luther King

7. Desegregation • A national and international call for desegregation of the South rang out, and Blacks and Whites all over the country started putting pressure on governments to amend the segregation laws. • Those individuals, both Black and White, who fought for Civil Rights were under constant attack from White Supremacists who were unwilling to accept Black Americans as equals • Many freedom-fighters died for their efforts

8. To Kill a Mockingbird • In the Fall of 1960, in the middle of the Civil Rights Movement, To Kill a Mockingbird was published. • It shot to the top of the New York Times best seller list. • This book, along with others, allowed readers to listen to the story of segregation and it helped to open their minds to the possibility of an America where Whites and Blacks could live together as equals.

9. Other Important Information: • This is an extraordinarily important piece of American literature for two reasons. First, because it helped to change the racial and social policies in America during the 1960s. Second, because it gives us an accurate and realistic picture of life in the South during the 1930s. • Because the book is meant to be a mirror of reality, we are sometimes exposed to ugliness (life is often ugly…especially during this time). • This means that in the course of this book, derogatory terms for African Americans will be used. The author uses this language not to insult (the OPPOSITE is true), but because it is a reflection of what reality was in 1930s Alabama. If we, as a class, read the book aloud during class, we will NOT read the derogatory words aloud. They are an intentional and important part of the story, but they have no place in my classroom, or in today’s society.