Scottsboro Trials In To Kill A Mockingbird

During the time of Jim Crow Laws, black people were not allowed to vote or have any voting roles, which banned them from serving on juries. This resulted in juries, police officers, and courtroom roles to be all-white. Racism led to the unfair convictions of many innocent black people. Some of these people may have not been tried, and they may have been lynched before they got the chance. Today, all trials are judged fairly, and all courtroom roles can be of whatever race. The influence upon Harper Lee to write her novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, was based on real life events. These include the Scottsboro Trials, expectations upon women in the South, and Jim Crow Laws. The first real world event that motivated Lee to write her novel is the Scottsboro
The train stopped in a town called Paint Rock where the nine boys were put into jail. The boys were about to be charged with assault, but two women were discovered hiding on the train. The women, Victoria Price and her accomplice, Ruby Bates, were riding as hobos on the train and decided to testify against the boys to cover up the crime they committed (Wormser). The mirroring of these events suggest that Lee was influenced by real world incidences she grew up hearing about. In the Scottsboro Trials, Ruby Bates and Victoria Price went to see a doctor, and semen was found in both girls. They did not seem to be injured and were very calm after being allegedly raped. The semen was non-motile which was strange because they were just raped by many boys. During the trials, Ruby Bates said that her and Victoria spent the night with their boyfriends the night before the train ride (Salter). There was no credible evidence against the boys, barely anything to go off of. This did not seem to matter in the 1930s. There is a similar situation in the novel. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Mayella Ewell claims that she has been raped by Tom Robinson (Lee 180). Her father, Bob Ewell, called the sheriff after he saw what
In the novel, Scout’s aunt, Alexandra, comes to visit them for a while. She decided that Scout needed some feminine influence (Lee 127). Aunt Alexandra acted like a perfect Southern woman and was very comely. She wore corsets, powdered her face, and had tea parties. At these tea parties, she would gossip with the women of the town (Lee 128, 228). During this time in real life, the ladies who were considered proper wore dresses and skirts. They also need to behave with high moral standards to be considered proper. It was more important than what they looked like (Cruz). The actions of Aunt Alexandra being a proper woman in the South implies that Lee was influenced by real events and behaviors to write her novel. In the 1930s, it was considered improper for women to wear men's clothing, to curse, and to play sports. For a woman to do any of these things would be considered very inappropriate (Cruz). In the book, Scout wears overalls, unless she is going to school. She wears a dress then, but she does not like it very much. She also plays outside with her brother, Jem, and their friend, Dill (Lee 15). Scout gets into fights at school and once she beat up Dill because he made her mad (Lee 22, 41). Aunt Alexandra is very opinionated and tries to get Scout to act more like a proper Southern lady. She complains