To Kill A Mockingbird

“A nation which does not remember what it was yesterday does not know where it is today.“

-Robert E. Lee

Harper Lee

Nelle Harper Lee was born on April 28, 1926 in Monroeville, Alabama

She is the youngest of four children of Amasa Coleman Lee and Frances Finch Lee.

In 1960, To Kill A Mockingbird was published. 

To Kill A Mockingbird was the only book Harper Lee ever wrote.

Connections between Harper Lee and the protagonist of To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout:

Harper Lee would have been the same age as Scout when the story takes place

Lee’s father was also a small town lawyerIt is rumored that Harper had a mysterious

recluse living in her neighborhood, like the character Boo Radley

Harper was a tomboy, like ScoutHarper’s mother’s maiden name was “Finch”

Another connection:The Scottsboro Trial

In April 1931, in Scottsboro, Alabama, nine African-American men—the youngest being twelve years old—were tried for raping two white women.

Medical testimony showed that the two women had not been raped, but the all-white jury convicted the men and sentenced them to death.

In six appellate trials, most of the convictions were overturned, and all but one of the men were subsequently freed or paroled.

Even though she was only six years old when the first trial took place, this trial had a significant impact on Harper Lee, and it served as the basis for the trial in To Kill a Mockingbird.

The South in the Early 1900’s

In the 1930s, the South was immersed in the Great Depression.

Poverty and unemployment were rampant, with over 13 million Americans having lost their jobs since 1929.

Between 1929 and 1932, farm prices fell by over 50 percent, and the average income in 1929 was about $750, but annual farm income was only about $275.

The Stock Market Crash of 1929

The crash wiped out 40% of the paper values of common stock.

Banks failed Businesses closed

doors Factories shut down By 1932 approximately

one in four Americans was unemployed.

Sound familiar?

Why did the Stock Market Crash?

The country was producing more than people could consume.

People put their savings into stocks and real estate, but much of this was based on speculation.

The government did little to regulate business and unwise investing.

High tariffs were instated to protect American businesses, this hurt American farmers.

What caused this plan to fail?

Why was the South hit so hard by the Great Depression?

The South was primarily an agrarian, or farm-based economy. Most of the farms were owned by white families.

Prices dropped so dramatically on crops, that farmers were not able to make enough money from their land

Needing to borrow money for seeds, equipment, food, etc., these farmers became very poor, and very in debt

Sharecropping

The majority of African-American farmers worked as sharecroppers in the white people’s fields,

In the sharecropping system, the landowner divided his land into shares, and he provided small houses, tools, and seeds for the sharecropper.

Once the crop was harvested, the landowners received a percentage of the profits, after having taken out the expenses they had incurred on behalf of the sharecroppers.

In the end, the sharecroppers usually made very little, and owed quite a bit of money.

A Sharecroppers Kitchen

How did this contribute to racism in the South?

As poverty hit more and more people, specifically, the white farmers, stress built as they were not able to pay their bills or keep their land

This stress aggravated racism that was already present in the South

What the South was like

Upper class white people in the South generally came from long lines of upper class, educated landowners

A family’s reputation, or history, was a indicator of how much respect they would get from others.

These wealthy people usually employed African-Americans in domestic roles-nannies, maids, cooks, etc.

This reinforced the social structure that kept African-Americans in a lower class than their white neighbors

Dorothea Lange

I saw and approached the hungry and desperate mother, as if drawn by a magnet. I do not remember how I explained my presence or my camera to her, but I do remember she asked me no questions. I made five exposures, working closer and closer from the same direction. I did not ask her name or her history. She told me her age, that she was thirty-two. She said that they had been living on frozen vegetables from the surrounding fields, and birds that the children killed. She had just sold the tires from her car to buy food. There she sat in that lean- to tent with her children huddled around her, and seemed to know that my pictures might help her, and so she helped me. There was a sort of equality about it.

Life on the move…

Middle Class Families take to the road… Part of an impoverished family of nine on a New Mexico

highway. Depression refugees from Iowa. Left Iowa in 1932 because of father's ill health. Father an auto mechanic laborer, painter by trade, tubercular. Family has been on relief in Arizona but refused entry on relief roles in Iowa to which state they wish to return. Nine children including a sick four-month-old baby. No money at all. About to sell their belongings and trailer for money to buy food. "We don't want to go where we'll be a nuisance to anybody." Children of migrant workers typically had no way to attend school. By the end of 1930 some 3 million children had abandoned school. Thousands of schools had closed or were operating on reduced hours. At least 200,000 children took to the roads on their own.

Approximately 2.5 million residents of the South abandoned their homes and took to the road in hopes of finding work.

African American’s Suffer the Most

As jobs became scarce, African Americans were hit the hardest. Most jobs available, both skilled and unskilled, were reserved for whites.

Despite the passing of the Social Security Act in 1935 which was designed to help Americans, African Americans did not benefit from this aid.

Jim Crow Laws

Franklin Roosevelt presents the New Deal

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” stated Roosevelt in his inaugural address.

Civilian Conservation Corps Agricultural Adjustment Act National Industry Recovery Act Work Progress Administration

How did these programs help the economy?

Did the programs really work?

WWII began just as the New Deal was put in place.

Did the war help the economy? Did the New Deal help the economy?