Preview

Examples Of Jim Crow Laws In To Kill A Mockingbird

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
312 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Examples Of Jim Crow Laws In To Kill A Mockingbird
“Many of the family’s meals consisted of potato pancakes and french fries because potatoes were cheap and filling” (Mccabe). This is a quote from the Great Depression article in which many people were out of work and had no food. This is the time period Harper Lee has chosen to write her book To Kill A Mockingbird. In this paper there will be many connections to the Jim Crow laws, mob mentality, and the Scottsboro trials.
The Jim Crow laws were one of many historical events that appeared in To Kill A Mockingbird. The Jim Crow laws were a series of laws against African Americans in the mid 1960s (Pilgrim). one example of a Jim Crow law is that a black person could not accuse a White person of lying (Pilgrim). Another law is that a Black person

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, continues to be taught today and should continue, as the characterization of the story, although fictional, has a high resemblance to real life cases and issues of the time. It captures critical lessons and teachings that are imperative to modern-day schools and present-day society. To Kill A Mockingbird depicts the inequality between blacks and whites in the 1930s by telling a captivating story including the issues of rape and racism. Although the fictional novel To Kill A Mockingbird was set in the 1930s, it references Civil Rights cases involving discrimination, racism, and segregation that were part of the Civil Rights movement throughout the whole century.…

    • 618 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Scottsboro Case is known to many. It is a significant case involving racism, lynching, segregation, and the Jim Crow laws. The case started on March 25, 1931, when two white women accused nine black men of rape while on a train headed to Jackson County, Alabama. The trial lasted years and ended with an unconstitutional verdict of guilty against the defendants. “Scottsboro captured South’s racism and the disturbance of the Great Depression.” (Scottsboro Trials). The Scottsboro Trials and Tom Robinson’s trial in the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee have many similarities. With the similarities there are differences too. The stories that the people involved tell is one. In the case…

    • 1168 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the story, To Kill A Mockingbird, there is a town called Maycomb, that experiences racial prejudice, I know this because of what some of the characters say or experience.…

    • 453 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jim Crow Laws, everyone knows that they had a disastrous effect on African Americans during the 1960s, however white folks were also desegregated around that time period as well. An example of this is in the book “To kill A Mockingbird”, on page 112, it says, “Francis looked at me carefully, concluded that I had been sufficiently subdued, and crooned softly, ‘Nigger-lover…’” This chapter in the novels concerns about people mocking Scout due to the fact that her father was defending a Negro man. This supports the claim because Scout was white, nonetheless still provoked as a result of Jim Crow Laws. Alternatively, assuming that Jim Crow Laws never existed, there would be no prejudice against African Americans, causing scout not to get pestered…

    • 178 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, characters resist the status quo many of their family and friends believe in to take a stand against racial injustice. For example, Atticus takes the case to defend Tom against his family’s wishes, because if he didn't, “.... [he] couldn't hold [his] head up in town, [he] couldn't represent this county in the legislature..” (100). Scout was asking Atticus why he would defend Negroes if he wasn't supposed to, and Atticus told Scout he wouldn't be able to live with himself if he didn't accept the case.…

    • 353 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, the character Calpurnia shows a tremendous amount of tolerance, not only to her unofficial family members, but also to the town she lives in. Calpurnia’s tolerance is not often showed directly in the novel, but if one is able to see past Scout’s narration and take a third party view to the story, you are truly able to see Calpurnia’s true tolerance. Firstly one must note that Calpurnia has taken a motherly role into the lives of Scout and Jem after the death of their mother, and although Calpurnia had been this to Scout for as long as she could remember, Scout only sees her as a hired cook, not a family member, this being proven on page 25 when she requests…

    • 247 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Jim Crow Laws is a list of laws that were used in previous years in different parts of the United States of America. The law above was from the state of Georgia and it forbid marriage between races. Similar laws existed in Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930s. White and black folks were separated in courtrooms, churches, and were not allowed to marry. Those who married and had mixed children were often seen as “in betweens” (Lee, 1960).…

    • 319 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Jim Crow laws were not the only historical evidence in To Kill a Mockingbird. Mob mentality was also common in the time the book was set in. Mob mentality is a group of people against something trying to get what they want. Mobs wanted bad things to happen to be people who did illegal…

    • 250 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury was created during a time where the world was facing many problems. The novel describes the impact of how a law can affect a whole society. In the book, the main law was that the citizens were not allowed to own and read books. If someone owned any books, then the consequences were that their books and home will be burnt with fire. The purpose of a book is to transmit information which will bring knowledge to the brain and mind. The books are banned due to the knowledge and understanding people would obtain if they read. Ray Bradbury puts Montag, a fireman, as the main character because of the courage he has to fight for what he thinks is right for him and those in his society. In Fahrenheit 451, courage…

    • 1104 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Prejudice towards different people is a huge part of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird novel. Nearly every little mishap in the book has been somehow linked or caused by prejudice. Naturally, the town of Maycomb is affected by it, and the effect isn’t for the best. Prejudice is a destructive force in Maycomb, bringing nothing to the town. The cause of Maycomb being destroyed is prejudice spreading hatred throughout the town, separating the people, and excluding and enabling members of the town to fully get what they need.…

    • 966 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jim Crow Laws Quotes

    • 613 Words
    • 3 Pages

    First, the Jim Crow laws presented themselves in American history and in To Kill A Mockingbird. Jim Crow is “ the name of the racial cast system which operated primarily in southern and boarder states” (Pilgrim 1). The most common Jim Crow laws are; Militia, Child Custody, and Buses. If the laws were not followed the punishments would include; “lynching, hanged, burned, and castrated” (Pilgrim 5). The Jim Crow picture is a representation of the whites seeing the black people as animals because of the tattered clothing, and they why he is photographed (V.). Also, the Jim Crow laws are present in To Kill A Mockingbird. Some examples of how the laws are presented in To Kill A Mockingbird the blacks get paid differently, the Negros have to ride different buses, and there is a different jail for the blacks to be held in. “We know that all men are not created equal” (Lee 274). This quote connects…

    • 613 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Race relations have evolved over the course of the 20 and 21 century. It seen through the book, To Kill a Mockingbird. It is also shown through famous trials such as the Scottsboro trials, the Emmett Till murder trial, the Sacco and Vanzetti trial, and the Nuremberg trials. Although it is found a lot between African Americans, race relations have evolved between other races as well.…

    • 1385 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In most societies, there are standards that help protect the citizens. However, when the standards are set by people who are prejudiced and bigoted the outcome can potentially be harmful to those whom the society deems “unacceptable” or “different”. To Kill a Mockingbird by the famed author Harper Lee is a novel that allows the audience to reflect on significant social issues and values in our society. The poem by Abel Meeropol titled Strange Fruit also reflects on the tragedy of discrimination. The novel deals with many issues that involve racial injustice, the destruction of innocence and class in the American Deep South. The poem, in just three verses, powerfully deals with the outcome of the social issue of racism in its most extreme form. The prejudice and bigotry are embedded in the social values and laws of a society. It is not until individuals and groups rally against the prejudice that change occurs.…

    • 996 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Jim Crow laws have the first influence in the book, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. The Jim Crow laws are a set of laws that set a racial caste system in the…

    • 1032 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Racism, the belief that some races are better than other races, it destroys society and it lowers one's freedom of speech, it was present in To Kill a Mockingbird from start to end. Most of the white community had a biased opinion about black people and their community,you see that when Calpurnia takes Jem and Scout to the black church because their father Atticus was away, but when they tell him about that their visit aunt Alexandra was not happy about it that there is segregation. Tom Robinson (a young innocent black man) falsely accused of raping a white girl Mayella Ewell, after him arriving at Macomb County there were some people from town that wanted to kill him before trial and later dies after the trial. Africans-American also served as slaves during that time, were given not much respect and if the white folks did not like them they would have been falsely charged and sent to jail or killed. Overall racism was active at all times in the novel and it got worse as the book proceeds and it shows how hard life was as a black person back then.…

    • 927 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays