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Racism In To Kill A Mockingbird

3387 Words14 Pages

English Literary Essay
Amy Olley
I have always felt very strongly about discrimination of races and so I decided to examine racism in Southern America between the 1930s and 1960s. The theme of my book project is: An Examination of the effects of the Jim Crow Legislation and of racism on both black and white in the books To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, which is my classic, The Help by Kathryn Stockett and The Colour Purple by Alice Walker.
The Jim Crow Legislation was implemented in Southern America in 1876 and it ended in 1965. The Jim Crow was a legalization of black and white segregation. Separate areas for whites and blacks were constructed and there were punishments for people conversing with a different race. All three of my books address the Jim Crow Legislation and while reading the books you are able to identify the laws under the Jim Crow Legislation.
Even though the plot of each book is completely different, all three books tackle the racial segregation and frustration of the Southern American citizens. The Help is set in Mississippi, Jackson in the 1960s. It is about a white twenty-three year old woman, Eugenia Phalen (Skeeter), who is against the Jim Crow Laws. Skeeter had a maid called Constantine, who she loved dearly as a child and Skeeter’s family treated her like family. Skeeter wants to be a writer and she decides to write a novel, after visiting the library and reading a book about the Jim Crow Laws, about the lives of black women who work for white

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