TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD : SOCIAL CONDITION OF BLACKS IN THE

SOUTHERN STATES IN AMERICA IN 1930s.

Lecturer : Prof. Dr. Soebakdi Soemanto
INTRODUCTION
About Harper Lee
Harper Lee was born in Monroeville, Alabama (a small town in Monroe County
between Montgomery and Mobile) on April 28, 1926. Lee was raised with two sisters, and
a brother. Lee grew up in Florida and came to Monroe County in the early 1900s. Most of
the information available about Lee's childhood comes from friends and is largely
anecdotal. In 1944, at the age of 18, Harper Lee enrolled in Huntingdon College in
Montgomery, Alabama. From 1945 to 1949 she studied law at the University of Alabama.
She transferred to Oxford University in England as an exchange student for a year, but six
months before completing her studies, Lee decided to go to New York to be a writer.1
To Kill a Mockingbird was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1961, and was made into a
major motion picture starring Gregory Peck in 1962. Lee was so impressed with Peck's
portrayal of Atticus Finch that she gave him her father's pocket watch at the end of the
movie's filming. 2
1 Wikipedia.org. (2014, April 29). Retrieved June 26, 2014, from Harper Lee:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harper_Lee
2 Cliffsnotes.com. (n.d.). Retrieved June 26, 2014, from About To Kill a
Mockingbird: http://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/t/to-kill-amockingbird/about-to-kill-a-amockingbird

In 1998, the Harper Lee Award for a Distinguished Alabama Writer was unveiled
by the executive committee of the Alabama Writers' Forum. This award recognizes an
accomplished writer who was born in the state or who lived in Alabama during his or her
formative years.
Never married, Lee continues to divide her time between New York and Monroeville,
where she lives with her sister Alice. Known for her wit and charm, Lee has granted only a
handful of interviews since To Kill a Mockingbird's publication. Her family and friends
remain protective of her privacy.
To Kill a Mocking Bird
The film of To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), which stars Gregory Peck as Atticus and
Mary Badham as Scout, is as much a classic as the novel itself. (The film received eight
Academy Awards nominations and netted awards for Best Actor, Best Screenplay Based on
Material from Another Medium, and Best Art Direction Set Decoration, Black and
White.) 3
To Kill a Mockingbird is primarily about growing up under extraordinary
circumstances in the 1930s in the Southern United States. Scout Finch, one of the character
in this story who lives with her brother Jem and father Atticus in the fictitious town of
Maycomb, Alabama. A widower, Atticus raises his children by himself, with the help of
3 Cliffsnotes.com. (n.d.). Retrieved June 26, 2014, from About To Kill a
Mockingbird: http://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/t/to-kill-amockingbird/about-to-kill-a-amockingbird

kindly neighbors and a black housekeeper named Calpurnia. Scout and Jem almost
instinctively understand the complexities and machinations of their neighborhood and
town. Scout and Jem discover that their father is going to represent a black man named
Tom Robinson, who is accused of raping and beating a white woman. Tom is tried and
convicted even though Atticus proves that Tom could not have possibly committed the
crime of which he is accused. In the process of presenting Tom's case, Atticus inadvertently
insults and offends Bob Ewell, a nasty, lazy drunkard whose daughter is Tom's accuser. In
spite of Tom's conviction, Ewell vows revenge on Atticus and the judge for besmirching
his already tarnished name. All three children are bewildered by the jury's decision to
convict; Atticus tries to explain why the jury's decision was in many ways a foregone
conclusion.
Shortly after the trial, Scout attends one of her aunt's Missionary Society meetings. Atticus
interrupts the meeting to report that Tom Robinson had been killed in an escape attempt.
Scout learns valuable lessons about achieving the ideal of womanhood and carrying on in
the face of adversity that day.
The central character moves from a state of innocence to one of maturity as the
result of suffering and surviving various misadventures. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout
Finch is that central character, and one of her biggest concerns throughout the book is
coming to terms with the expectations her society has for women. In the 1930s, women in
the South were pressured to conform to a widely held ideal of "Southern womanhood."
Women were treated as delicate, fragile creatures, and they were expected to act in

accordance with that treatment. Scout is anything but delicate and fragile, and a good deal
of the story focuses on her attempts to fit into a world that expects tomboys to wear frilly
dresses and maintain a dainty disposition. Scout faces so many issues in the duration of the
novel, but one of the most lingering for her is the question of what it means to "be a lady."
Scout is a tomboy. Sometimes her brother criticizes her for "acting like a girl," other times
he complains that she's not girlish enough.
Jim Crow Laws
The racial concerns that Harper Lee addresses in To Kill a Mockingbird began long
before her story starts and continued long after. In order to sift through the many layers of
prejudice that Lee exposes in her novel, the reader needs to understand the complex history
of race relations in the South.
Many whites at the time believed that instead of progressing as a race, blacks were
regressing with the abolition of slavery. Southern churches frequently upheld this racist
thinking, which also helped give the Jim Crow laws some of their power. Jim Crow laws
extended into almost every facet of public life. The laws stipulated that blacks use separate
entrances into public buildings, have separate restrooms and drinking fountains, and sit in
the back of trains and buses. Blacks and whites were not allowed to be served food in the
same room in a restaurant, play pool together, share the same prisons, or be buried in the
same cemeteries. African Americans couldn't play professional sports with white
teammates or serve in the armed forces with white soldiers. Black children were educated

in separate schools. Black barbers couldn't wait on white female clients, and white female
nurses couldn't attend to black male patients.
ANALYSIS
In this film, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee seems wants the reader to see, through the
eyes of children, Scout and Jem, a girl of six and a boy of ten years of age, the miseries and
bitterness of the people who called Negroes in the Southern States of America in the 1930s.
Actually in that time the Great Depression was happened in America.. The problem of the
Great Depression affected virtually every group of Americans. No group was harder hit
than African American, however. By 1932, approximately half of black Americans were
out of work. Not only the impact in economical, since they dont have any to help
themselves.
The Depression and the New Deal eras are taken as the setting of Harper Lees novel and
film, which she wrote in 1957 at the height of Americas most recent Civil Right
Movement. Harper Lee intend to have the readers learn and understand that all human
beings are equal. When the Great depression began in 1929 with the crash of the stock
market, the South was hit harder than the North. The agrarian pattern of Southern life was
based on largely one-crop economy, overproduction of crops brought lower prices. The
impact of the Depression had caused a gradual change for many individuals. Blacks and
other racial minorities, as well as women, lost their jobs first.
Nevertheless, the Depression was the worst for Blacks. They had been forced to live with
the prejudice, segregation, and poverty long before 1929 and now they not only lost menial

jobs to whites, but they were also discriminated against on the breadlines. 4 In order to
restore Americas economy after the Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt enacted
laws known as the New Deal (1933). Farmers struggled hard in order to make up for the
lower prices. For Black Americans, Franklin D. Roosevelt became the appealing President
since Abraham Lincoln. Depicted in the story, the scene during a serious discussion with
Jem and Scout, after Tom Robinsons trial, Atticus tells them about his concern and fear of
the coming upheavel that the future may bring regarding white peoples attitude toward
blacks. One of these days were going to pay the bill for it. I hope its not in your
childrens time, 5. The Blacks, they fought not only for separate facilities in restrooms,
restaurants, hotels, and education but equal opportunities in jobs, housing, and education as
well.
Blacks and whites alike are subjected to crimes. However, in the case of blacks, more
severe punishment was given to them than to whites for the same crime, especially if it
were committed against the whites. A death sentence could be passed on a blck man if
found guilty of murder or rape. Because of the sensitivity of rape, blacks were frightened
when confronting a white woman for fear of offending her. Franklin record in The Negro
in 20th Century America that a white womans description upon her encountering a black
man:

4 Norton, M. B. (1982). A people and A Nation. Boston: Houghton Mifflin

Compan
5 Lee, H. (1988). To Kill A Mockingbird. -: McIntosh and Otis, Inc

I had really terrible experience one evening a few days ago. I was walking
along.when I saw a rather good looking young Negro come out a hallway
to the sidewalk. He was in a great hurry, and, in turning suddenly, as a
person sometimes will do, he accidently brushed my shoulder with his arm.
He has not seen me before. When he turned and found it was a white
woman he had touched, such a look of abject terroe and fear came into his
face as I hope never again to see on human countenance.6
It is obvious that Tom Robinson must have shared the same frightening feeling when he
ran away from the Ewells after seeing Bob Ewell shouting at Mayella from the window.
Thus, no matter how hard Atticus contends to save him, Atticus is indeed fighting a losing
battle. On the other hand, Toms running away facing trouble is considered typical of a
nigger to the white people of Maycomb. One of the objectives like To Kill A Mockingbird,
is to help after such social conditions. Perhaps it may help some readers become sensitive
to others, and to develop tolerance and understanding that is so essential to adults and
children. Jem and Scout give us a view of Americas racial conflict that is both honest and
self revelatory.

6 Franklin, J. H. (1967). The Negro in 20th Century: A Reader on the Struggle

for Civil Rights. New York: Random House, Inc

CONCLUSION
Social condition of blacks in the 1930s Southern States in America as depicted in
the To Kill A Mockingbird. The Great Depression and New Deal eras was make the worst
situation for the Blacks at that time. However it becomes even more complicated in
America if Black male is accused of raping a white woman. Justice may be obstructed by
racism, and the penalties can be serve. At the time of the action of the story in the South,
death sentence could be passed on any man if he were found guilty of murder of rape. It
was more likely to be passed on black man. Scout, innocent as she is, learns to understand
the meaning of rape when her father decides to defend Tom Robinson, a black man
accused of raping Mayella Ewell, a white girl nineteenth and a half years old. Harper Less
intends to have the reader learn and understand that all human being are equal, be they
white or black, and that children may be more tolerance of and compassionate with people
who are different from them. Maybe, only a few people like Atticus Finch exist in any
surrounding in the world. However, it is through people like him that one can learns and
understand about human beings. By learning about the cultural and value systems of
people of other countries, one is able to know and appreciate more about ones own.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Wikipedia.org. (2014, April 29). Retrieved June 26, 2014, from Harper Lee:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harper_Lee
Cliffsnotes.com. (n.d.). Retrieved June 26, 2014, from About To Kill a
Mockingbird: http://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/t/to-kill-amockingbird/about-to-kill-a-amockingbird
Franklin, J. H. (1967). The Negro in 20th Century: A Reader on the Struggle for
Civil Rights. New York: Random House, Inc.
Lee, H. (1988). To Kill A Mockingbird. -: McIntosh and Otis, Inc.
Norton, M. B. (1982). A people and A Nation. Boston: Houghton Mifflin
Company.