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Atticus Finch's Role In To Kill A Mocking Bird

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Just like any other institution, families played a role in changing racial relations. During the 50s and 60s, families became more willing to put themselves at risk in order to challenge separate but equal laws that allowed unfair treatment of blacks.
Harper Lee’s, To Kill a Mockingbird, covers the day to day life of Atticus Finch and his two children, Scout and Jem, in 1930s Alabama. Atticus, a lawyer, was handpicked to represent a black man accused of raping a white woman one summer. He felt called to this innocent man’s case knowing well and good that his two young children would face innumerable challenges at his side. When asked by Scout just why he was defending Tom Robinson, Atticus replied, “...if I didn 't I couldn 't hold up my …show more content…

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is known as a famous civil rights leader who was a major factor in the movement. However, to four children all King was seen as was “Dad” (Martin Luther King Jr.). When King took up the fight against discrimination he was putting not only his life but the life of his family at danger. Following his success with the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a demonstration he lead after Rosa Parks’ was arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat to white passengers, King’s family home was bombed. Luckily, no one was harmed. In one address to a crowd King is quoted saying, “My intimidations are a small price to pay if victory can be won” (King’s House). King risked the future of his family for a cause he vehemently supported. He paid the ultimate price with his life and his family suffered a tremendous loss. However his dream that his “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” was realized and accomplished partly by his leadership and sacrifice …show more content…

Based off of the Briggs v. Elliot case and its effects, the movie “Separate but Equal” tells the story of how a courageous family took on a bussing issue which set the ball rolling on the bigger issue of school desegregation by garnering the support of their community and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (Separate but Equal). This case was one of five like it that grew into the better known case Brown v. Board of Education. As signers of the complaint against the school district, both Harry and Eliza Briggs faced repercussions (Briggs v. Elliot). They both lost their jobs shortly after the complaint was filed forcing Harry Briggs Sr. to leave his family to find work in another state. Harry Briggs Jr. was denied a job years later as a bus driver in Clarendon County and eventually moved with the rest of his family out of

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