Examples Of Racial Injustice In To Kill A Mockingbird

Racial Injustices

Racism in the 1930’s served as an injustice to blacks that were convicted of crimes. In the time periods of the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, and The Scottsboro Boys trial, discrimination in Alabama was atrocious, and racial injustice was seen throughout this time period. The Scottsboro trial shows how discrimination played a large role in Alabama during the 1930’s. This influenced Harper Lee’s to write about the Tom Robinson case. In many ways, the Scottsboro trials were more similar to the Tom Robinson case, but at some points had differences.

Racial discrimination in the south made it very hard for blacks to be respected. The Scottsboro boys and their supporters fought for justice where there was barely hope.

In Tom Robinson’s case, his ending was death. Atticus knew he would lose the initial case, but decided to appeal to give Tom Robinson a second chance at life. “‘They shot him,’ said Atticus. ‘He was running...They said he just broke into a blind raving charge at the fence and started climbing over right in front of them-’” (Lee 235). Tom Robinson ran because he knew there was no hope. He had no faith in Atticus’ appeal and decided that death was a better option. On the other hand, the Scottsboro boys had a different stories. Initially, they were convicted because of the racial injustices swaying the case, then after some being freed, they were treated like celebrities. “...they were taken on a speaking tour and booked into the Apollo Theater where they sang, danced, and took part in a reenactment of their trial.” (Scottsboro). But, their stories didn’t end there. “After their release from prison, most of the Scottsboro defendants led troubled lives in the North,” (Scottsboro) For example, Haywood Patterson killed a man, then died at the age of thirty nine. Andy Wright was accused of raping a girl for the second time, and his brother Roy, shot and killed his wife and himself. In the end of everything, only Clarence Norris was successful in the north, “He wanted the world to know that he was an innocent man. He had a responsibility now to make sure that the world understood that those nine defendants in 1931 were innocent and that it was racism, only racism, that in fact forced them to spend all those years in prison,” (Scottsboro). The difference between Tom Robinson and the Scottsboro boys was faith. The Scottsboro boys waited for their freedom and after years were finally freed, but Tom Robinson had no faith in Atticus’ appeal so he committed suicide. Another difference found is how Clarence Norris proved to the world that he was innocent. Tom Robinson took no care in proving his