What Are The Similarities Between To Kill A Mockingbird And The Scottsboro Boys Trial

During the trial, Tom Robinson revealed that Mayella’s father verbally and sexually abuses her. Tom states “She says she never kissed a grown man before. She says what her papa do to her don’t count.” (Doc. B) After Mr. Ewell caught Tom and Mayella, he called Mayella a “goddamn whore” and threatens her by saying “I’ll kill ya.” (Doc. B)

The Emmett Till case and Tom Robinson’s case in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird are similar because they both involve unfairness due to racial injustice. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Tom Robinson was wrongly accused of raping a white woman and even with jury knowing that he didn’t actually rape her, he was still convicted of the crime. Tom’s lawyer, Atticus Finch had a lot of supporting evidence that proved that Tom did not rape the woman and everyone had just disregarded it because whether he did it or not, they could not let a black win over a white.

Although, what really happened was one of the white girls stepped on one of the boys hands and they started fighting and throwing rocks. ”8 out of the 9 boys were trialed with death” (Linder). The court during the time had a strong racial dislike for the black race. On January 1932, the court ruled 6-1 on all but one of the convictions.

Since she was a woman person saw her as a victim when really Tom Robinson was the real victim. When it was time for Tom to be questioned by Mr. Finch about what had happened, he stated, “She says, ‘Kiss me back, n**ger.’ I say Miss Mayella lemme outa here an‘ tried to run but she got her back to the door an’ I’da had to push her. I didn’t wanta harm her, Mr. Finch, an‘ I say lemme pass, but just when I say it Mr. Ewell yonder hollered through th’ window.” Mayella knew that if she tried to kiss Tom and he rejected her she could say that he attacked her and no one would believe Tom about what really happened.

Relationships among races have evolved within the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The majority of race-related conflicts were negative. Some of the trials that took place throughout this time period were the Scottsboro Trials, the Emmett Till Murder Trial, Loving v. Virginia, the Trial of Peter Liang, and the Johnson v. California trial. In the book, To Kill a Mockingbird, there was a fictional trial that dealt with the relationship between a black man and white woman. Racial relations does not only deal with African-Americans and whites but other races including Asians, South Africans, etc.

This essay will be about two injustices the Scottsboro trial and Tom Robinson’s trial. A few similarities are that they were treated unfairly and they were all accused of a repulsive crime, raping a white woman. In the Scottsboro trial though, two women were supposedly raped. Both trials happened in the same time period, while also noting that the women in both trials came from poor backgrounds. Atticus gave his all to his case while the nine young men’s lawyer also tried his best.

The Scottsboro Trials and To Kill a Mockingbird In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, the famous father named Atticus says “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… until you climb into his skin and walk around in it (Judith 2).  This quote is said during a time of intense racism. “Not long after Obama took office, the National Urban League released its 2009 State of Black America report. The findings showed that racial inequities continued in employment, housing, health care, education, criminal justice, and other areas” (Buckley 1).  This essay will primarily focus on the criminal justice area of this when discussing the Scottsboro trials and comparing the trials to the famous novel To Kill a Mockingbird.

The study of Scottsboro trial will help enhance the understanding of readers of To Kill a Mocking bird. Both the fictional and historical trials took place in 1930s, both the accusers were white women and the defendants were African-American men. In both fictional and historical trials, the charge was rape. Both the historical and fictional trails reflect the prevailing attitudes of time. The novel explores the social and legal problems that arise because of the racial

Then some people thought that Tom was innocent but the judge decided to make Tom go to prison. In the book it said that Mayella hugged and kissed Tom on the cheek. From this I can infer that Mayella is desperate and can get away with this because Tom Robinson is a black person. This reminds me of a couple southern movies I’ve watched where black people are always the first to suspect because of their color. Tom Robinson on trial for his life said Bob Ewell yelled “whore I’ll kill you” when he saw Mayella kiss Tom from the window.

From the crime to the trial, there are parallels between the crimes and trials. On March 25, 1931, a freight train was stopped in Paint Rock, a tiny community in northern Alabama, and nine young African American men who had been riding the rails were arrested. Two white women, Ruby Bates and Victoria Price, descended from the freight cars, and accused the men of raping them on the train. As a result, the accused men were taken to the Scottsboro jail.

This trial happened in the 1930s. The boys were traveling by train to Memphis looking for jobs. While on the train a brawl erupted between a gang of whites and a gang of blacks. The blacks were able to force the gang of whites off the train. Which only left the gang of blacks and four whites.

What is Murder? The taking of another life? Murder is the unlawful premeditated killing of one human being by another. Now what is rape? The definition of rape is unlawful sexual intercourse or any other sexual penetration of the vagina, anus, or mouth of another person, with or without force, by a sex organ, other body part, or foreign object, without the consent of.

The Scottsboro Boys Case and To Kill a Mockingbird were cases of the injustice of black men. Harper Lee was trying to point out that a person 's skin color or race does not justify the actions they done, that anyone who practices prejudice is foolish. That prejudice is an actual reality that a person experiences first hand and hurts others in the process. Like Harper Lee with her father being a lawyer she must’ve experienced it first hand. These stories teach us that you shouldn’t judge a person by their race.

The Ewells could have been lying because most likely Mayella tempted Tom. Back then if you were involved with a colored person you were disgraced by the whole town. Mayella could have been trying to cover this up and get Tom arrested so he wouldn't be able to tell anyone. The jury convicted Tom Robinson because he was colored and back then white people believed they had to stick together against the colored people. This shows that based on the evidence Tom Robinson was only convicted because of his skin color.

Why did Atticus defend a black man? Justice and being given the chance of a fair trial. Atticus Finch believed that everyone, black or white should be given the chance, to be proven not guilty. Even though some people thought Atticus was wrong in defending Tom Robinson, Atticus knew it was right to defend Tom because he knew everyone deserved a fair trial.