Theme Of Rape In To Kill A Mockingbird

The accusation of rape upon nine Negro men in Scottsboro, Alabama was a racism-driven tragedy in American history. Two young women, Victoria Price and Ruby Bates, accused nine young Negro men of raping them on the train ride from Chattanooga, Tennessee to Paint Rock, Alabama. The rape accusation came about when Haywood Patterson’s hand was stepped on by a white on top of the train, leading to the blacks fighting the whites off of the train. The fight was triggered when one white said “This is a white man’s train.” When the train stopped in Paint Rock, the whites of the town took their guns and confronted the blacks, taking all of them off of train, thus finding Victoria Price and Ruby Bates looking disheveled. Victoria claimed during the trial that six men took her, while three took Ruby, and held a knife to her throat, but no definite evidence was provided of this happening, therefore the men were convicted of the rape based largely upon their race. The Scottsboro trial marked a time of tragedy and racism in our country. …show more content…
During this time period, racism was a prominent cause of death among blacks in the south. The video created the insight of how easily a black can be convicted of a crime in Alabama. In the novel, Atticus will be defending Tom Robinson, a Negro. There is such great amounts of segregation during this time that I find it surprising for Atticus, a white man, to be defending Robinson. In the video, the nine Negro men could not get a lawyer in Scottsboro, therefore they ended up having a real estate lawyer from Chattanooga. This shows how loving and willing Atticus is to be defending a black in his home town. Atticus is taking a huge risk in defending Tom Robinson due to this