To Kill A Mockingbird

1
To Kill A Mockingbird

• Harper Lee
• The Scottsboro Trials

2
Background on Harper Lee

• Largely autobiographical and like her character,
  Boo Radley, Lee has had one moment of notoriety,
  followed by years of privacy and silence.
• born is Monroeville, Alabama, April 28, 1926
• Third youngest of Amasa Coleman Lee and Frances
  Finch (surname of mom is the family name of the
  main characters).

3
Family life

• Atticus Finch (main character) modeled after
  father, Amasa (lawyer).
• Maycomb, the setting in To Kill A Mockingbird is
  modeled after her hometown, Monroeville, Alabama.
• Grew up during the Great Depression of the 1930s
  - much like Scout (narrator).

4
Childhood

• Nobody had any money. We didnt have toysso
  the result was that we lived in our imagination
  most of the time.
• Childhood playmate - Truman Capote (Dill is
  modeled after him).
• Although she loved writing, she had a passion for
  law.

5
Schooling

• Graduated public school, attended Huntington
  College and the University of Alabama. Went to
  Oxford University - exchange student.
• Lee never earned law degree, but she feels that
  studying law gave her a logic and a lucidity
  helpful in her writing.
• Settled in New York City - worked as an airline
  reservation clerk.

6
How did the story originate?

• Showed some tales of her childhood to a
  literary agent, who urged her to put together a
  novel.
• Events such as the Scottsboro Trials
• Thus - To Kill A Mockingbird Published in 1960.

7
Awards and Achievements

• Best seller
• Pulitzer Prize for fiction
• Selected by both the Literary Guild and the
  Book-of-the-Month Club
• Alabama Library Association Award
• National Conference of Christians and Jews
  Brotherhood Award

• Has a place amongst the great works in
  contemporary American literature.
• Made into an Academy Award winning movie in 1963
• Ranks 34 on AFI all time movie list.

8
What has she done since?

• Never published a novel again.
• Kept writing essays for magazines like McCalls
  and Vogue.
• Self described as a slow writer.
• It may be a summation of Lees life that she has
  found nothing else to write about.

9
The Scottsboro Trials

• March 25, 1931 Police stop Southern Railroad
  train in Paint Rock, Alabama.
• Scottsboro boys are arrested on charges of
  assault. Rape charges are added against all nine
  boys after accusations are made by Victoria Price
  and Ruby Bates.
• The two women are underage older one is a
  prostitute.
• Both smuggling and trying to avoid problems.

10
The Scottsboro Trials

• Oldest was 19 youngest was 12.
• Within one month of the first trial, the first
  African-American is sentenced to death. Others
  condemned.
• Jury ignored evidence wanted execution versus
  life imprisonment.
• None of the accused were executed.
• Central figure was second trial Judge Horton who
  postponed trials and set aside a conviction
  contrary to public outcry.
• Not until 1977 was the case finally settled.

11
The Scottsboro Boys

• Charles Weems
• Clarence Norris
• Andy Wright
• Ozie Powell
• Olen Montgomery

• Eugene Williams
• Willie Roberson
• Roy Wright
• Haywood Patterson