The NAACP’s offices in the southern state were shut down to prevent any form of protests for civil rights in the south. CORE journey of reconciliation highlighted that while African Americans enjoyed de jure rights, they weren’t seeing what they got realistically. In 1947 there was limited amount of picketing visible by the civil rights campaigners, only small protests were seen and they had no aid in change. When the African Americans won the brown v. board they had been proud of the victory, but in hindsight the victory was only de jure meaning what they won wasn’t put into practice. The lack of picketing shows that the civil rights campaigners were subject to limited protest so they never did much towards helping.
The Ewells are the second to last on Jem’s social hierarchy scale. The Ewells are what would be consider “white trash”. They are rude, filthy, poor, uneducated people. The only reason the Cunninghams and Ewells are not on the same level is because of how rude the Ewells are. The last on Jem’s scale is the blacks.
This assumption that black people are lower in class than anyone else, is a direct result of the unfair views of society. These inequalities are displayed in a number of ways, most prominently through the wrongful accusation and, afterwards, the unjust trial of Tom Robinson. The rigid social structure of Southern society, as well as the racial prejudice of the 1930s, allowed Bob Ewell to accuse Tom of a crime he did not commit. The quote: “Atticus had used every tool available to free men to save Tom Robinson, but in the secret courts of men's hearts Atticus had no case.” is Scout’s way of saying that society’s views led to the inability of the jury to look past the colour of Tom’s skin, to reach a fair sentence. In Lord of the Flies, lack of equality also directly leads to a few of the incidents on the island.
On top of pleading not guilty, he refused the advice of the attorney presented to him to plead insanity and blame it on black rage. The attorney tried to convince Ferguson that he would be likely to win if he plead not guilty on the basis of insanity and black rage which came from the suppression of African Americans in a white society. He refused to plead insanity and repeatedly told the court that he was sane- although he refused psychiatric analysis as well. He fired his attorney, shortly after he was granted him, and refused his right to be represented in the court of law, his right as an American citizen protected under the fourteenth amendment. This is what made this court case so interesting.
However, on average black workers earned 50% less than their white counterparts. In 1986 a black man called Homer Plessy challenged segregation laws, claiming that they were incompatible with the 14th amendment. The Supreme Court ruled that segregation was legal because it was legitimate to treat people according to the principle “separate but equal”. De facto was very different and African Americans were still treated as a lower ‘second’ class. Traditionally Black Americans had voted for the Republican Party.
In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee incorporates the theme, prejudice, to portray the feelings and thoughts that people had during the time period of the Great Depression; this was described in the Trial where Tom Robinson fought for his life. throughout the 1930's, most people were raised with prejudice beliefs in the South. Whites were taught from generations before them that african americans do not deserve respect. Therefore, it should not be brought to them. Most whites believed that African Americans were to do what they were told, by them.
Throughout the years racism has been a common problem and is happening all around us. In earlier times black people were used as slaves and did have little to no rights at all, but now discrimination between blacks and whites is illeagal and we are all supposed to have equal rights. Although the discrimination is illeagal it has happened in the judical system in the past that juries and other people have made their decision based on the defendants race. Like in the case of Tom Robinson from the book “To Kill a Mockingbird” and in the case of Stephen Lawrence the verdict seems to have been based mainly on their colors. So that leads me thinking if people of all races will ever be equal in the justice system and to the rest of the world.
Further more explaining this topic, Ralph Ellison wrote an essay titled “What America Would Be Like Without Blacks” and how America would not survive without Blacks. “Ridding” America of Blacks is unrealistic because America would not be where it is today without Blacks. Without Blacks in America, the history of our country would not be the same. Many issues that Blacks suffered through would not exist. There would be “no [slavery], no Civil War, no K.K.K., and no Jim Crow system”(Ellison 82).
At the time, in the 1930s, there were two distinct groups, as seen by society. There were the black savages and the cultured and sophisticated, rich whites. The upper class, being the caucasians, looked at the blacks very lowly. They assumed that they were not very intelligent and they would never make it very far in life, compared to white people. Bigger, however, was not like many typical blacks.
Her father, Atticus, is a lawyer for Maycomb County, Alabama. He is appointed as the attorney for Tom Robinson, a colored man from their town. He is accused of raping Mayella Ewell. When people started to find out that Atticus was defending a Negro man, they started treating his family differently. Despite the cruel treatment from the people of Maycomb County, Atticus stood strong in his belief that every man is created equal, and therefore deserves a fair trial.