Racism In To Kill A Mockingbird Essay

Racism in To Kill a Mockingbird Racism has long been a problem in the United States of America. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Lee addressed the issue of racism in a time when others were too afraid to. This novel was written in 1960. Racism played a big part in the trial of Tom Robinson. Tom Robinson is a hard working black man. He would help Mayella Ewell with housework for free. In return for his work, she accused him of rape. Mayella forcefully kissed Tom Robinson. Her father Bob Ewell, saw her kiss him through the window. He was only accused because he was an easy target, being a black man. Because Tom Robinson was a black man, a lynch mob that was organized by Bob Ewell, went to Macomb County’s jail to murder the poor, innocent African American man. “‘Mr. Finch?’ A soft husky voice came from the darkness above: ‘They gone?’ Atticus stepped back and looked up. ‘They’ve gone,’ he said, ‘Get some sleep, Tom. They won’t bother you any more.’”(Lee 206) This showed how truly scared Tom was of the lynch mob. Atticus really did not want Tom Robinson to be murdered because he was accused of a seriously crime that he did not …show more content…
This is proven to not be true in one scene of To Kill a Mockingbird. When Jem and Scout went to church with Calpurnia, an African American woman, named Lula, was racist towards Jem and Scout for being the only white people in the church. Lula did not want anyone who is white in her church, whether they were children or not. Every African American wanted nothing more than for racism towards them to stop. It makes Lula a hypocrite because she was being racist towards white children who were nothing but polite to her and everyone else. Calpurnia retaliated Lula’s racism by bringing their religion into the situation. “Lula, a Negro, protest against the visit of the white children, and Calpurnia retorts by saying, ‘It’s the sem God, Ain’t it?’”(Dave