Scottsboro Case To Kill A Mockingbird

“All men are created equal, it is only men themselves who place themselves above equality” -David Allan Coe. What Coe is saying here is that everyone is human but it is only the humans who view themselves as superior, who create inequality. One of the times where inequality in the United States was most prevalent was during the 1930s, especially in southern states. An example of this inequality is shown in Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird when the father, Atticus, has to take on a very controversial case regarding racial issues. The case in the book was inspired by the Scottsboro case. The Scottsboro case was a controversial racial conflict that took place in the 1930s where nine black boys on a train were falsely accused of raping two white …show more content…
In this case, the most important people were their lawyers and the judge, similar to how Atticus is Tom Robinson’s lawyer in To Kill a Mockingbird. The importance of this judge, these lawyers and the hatred they faced is shown in the interview when LeMaistre says, “I don't think there was any doubt that he leaned over backward to make sure that the evidence that was to be presented on behalf of the defendants got to the jury. It didn't do any real good because the jury already had its mind made up I'm sure” (LeMaistre 3). Here he is referring to the judge Jim Horton who was on the case, but this quote could definitely also be used to describe the efforts of the lawyers as well. The interview also reveals that the lawyers were threatened and even caught the attention of the Ku Klux Klan, which proves that these people were very brave to defend the boys and stand strongly for what they believed in (LeMaistre 3). Another organization that helped was the American Communist Party who organized street marches, speaking tours, and created songs. Lastly, one person who was vital to the solving of the case and who ended up helping the boys was Ruby Bates. Ruby Bates was one of the women who was pressured into convincing law officials that she was raped but eventually switched sides in the case. …show more content…
The brave men and women that fought for the boys involved were able to win the case and overcome the prejudiced jury and public. This case did much to help kickstart the equality movement. Without this challenging case, people would have been much less aware of the racial problems that were occurring and would not recognize the difference between doing what is morally right and what society expects them to do. These important changes are shown in the Scottsboro article when it says, “The trial of the Scottsboro Boys is perhaps one of the proudest moments of American radicalism, in which a mass movement of blacks and whites—led by Communists and radicals—successfully beat the Jim Crow legal system” (Kindig 5). After all this time there is finally kindness and empathy being expressed and it is truly a heartwarming story of how these unlikely people were able to beat a mass of public inequality. Therefore, the legacy and effect the Scottsboro case had on the future was the real reason why this case is so important still to this