The scottsboro trial and to kill a mockingbird

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He produced a volume of works based around the Scottsboro case. Read the following poem and answer the questions. Why does Hughes suggest the 'world' should 'turn pale'? What can you discover about the people listed by name in the poem? What is Hughes suggesting about the '13 Black Boys' by associating them with these figures?

Given the way that Hughes frames the situation of the Scottsboro men, what can you say about his perspective on race relations? Is it much to die? Is it much to die when immortal feet March with you down Time's street, When beyond steel bars sound the deathless drums Like a mighty heart-beat as they come?

That mad mob That tore the Bastile down Stone by stone. Four were released when the charges against them were dropped in , and gradually, one by one, by , the remaining five gained their freedom. But the so-called Scottsboro Boys struggled to adapt to life as free men after the hardships they had endured in prison. Flash forward 80 years later: The Scottsboro Boys surfaced again in the national news. Since its publication in , To Kill a Mockingbird has paid witness to similar racial injustice.

Parallels can be made between the fictional trial of Tom Robinson and the historical Scottsboro Boys case trials, which Harper Lee drew upon as inspiration for the novel. Like the trials, the novel illustrates a time in the American South when Jim Crow was the law of the land, racial segregation was entrenched, and mob rule could chew up and spit out the individual. The Encyclopedia of Alabama chalks up the ongoing popularity of To Kill a Mockingbird to the message of tolerance that Lee proclaimed during an intolerant age.

Each year in the timeline is divided by months and also by four color-coded categories: Politics and Society; Science and Technology; Arts and Culture; and World Events. Many of the items listed for each year are linked to further information in the form of images, audio, and video.

Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the approaches the authors take. Analyze how complex characters e. Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is valid and the evidence is relevant and sufficient; identify false statements and fallacious reasoning.

Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences. Excerpts from the following primary and secondary sources of the Scottsboro Boys trial of and the first Scottsboro Boys trial of held in Decatur, Alabama, from March through April are used in the lesson activities:.

Students should have completed their initial reading of the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird before commencing work on this lesson. In the activity, students interpret firsthand accounts of the fictional and historical trials as recorded by two different witnesses. They will compare the factual trial report with the fictional trial observations to determine the character of the plaintiff s or accusers in both cases. Tell them Ransdall was a young teacher, journalist, and activist asked by ACLU officials to travel to Alabama to investigate and report on the controversial trials of the Scottsboro Boys that had just taken place.

Ransdall spent ten days in early May of interviewing a number of people involved in the case including the two plaintiffs, Victoria Price and Ruby Bates. This unpublished report is a contemporaneous account of social attitudes as they existed at the time of the trial. Have students pay special attention to the following sections and pages of the Ransdall report where the two plaintiffs, Victoria Price and Ruby Bates, and their families are described in detail:.

Note to the students that the Scottsboro Boys were put through many trials that went on for a number of years. Activity 1 relates to the observations made in the first trial in Tell students there is a lot going on in the fictional and historical trials observations. Inform students these details are small parts of a larger picture. Following the close reading analysis of the plaintiffs and their families, responses should be shared by the whole class, with several questions at the bottom of Worksheet 1 focusing the discussion.

Students should refer back to the textual evidence gathered in Worksheet 1 to support their responses. Assessment: Have students think about what they have learned about each plaintiff and their families from the observations they have recorded.

Have them write a cause and effect analysis of the plaintiffs in both trials based on their observations. Identify what factors events, series of events, or circumstances may have led each plaintiff to level the accusations that resulted in the arrests of the accused and their subsequent trials.

Have students analyze the motivations of other main characters defendants, defense attorneys, and judges in both the historical and fictional trials. Using the primary and secondary sources of the first Scottsboro trial of and excerpts from To Kill a Mockingbird , have them identify descriptive passages of and quotations from each of these historical and fictional characters. For each passage and quotation, students will come up with a character trait or descriptive phrase.

Then, they willcompare the corresponding sets of characters. Have them pay special attention to the instances in which these characters may have exhibited courage or cowardice. Horton will be considered.

Have students begin with a contextual background reading to build their knowledge of main characters in this first Scottsboro trial held in Specific links from the Douglas Linder and the Scottsboro: An American Tragedy documentary websites are provided here to direct students to specific primary and secondary sources passages related to that character in the trial:. Students will find additional evidence on the character traits of both Atticus Finch and Judge John Taylor surfaces after the trial scene has concluded.

Divide students into groups of three or four and distribute Worksheet 2. Part 1 Trial Character Traits. Assign one or more sets of corresponding characters to each group of students. Have them work together to complete profiles of this set of characters in the trials using the worksheets. They should draw evidence from both the primary source and secondary source passages that describe the character of their historical and fictional figures.

Have students enter short descriptive phrases, adjectives, direct quotations from each trial and its aftermath into the second column. Then have students come up with a descriptive character trait exemplified in that passage and place it in the first column. Through the novel, Lee strives to illustrate the racial climate of the South in the s, a time when Jim Crow was the law of the land, racial segregation was entrenched, and mob rule could chew up and spit out the individual.

By observing her father, Scout gradually discovers that moral courage is both more complicated and more difficult to enact than the physical courage most familiar and understandable to children. In short, To Kill A Mockingbird reveals the heroic nature of acting with moral courage when adhering to social mores would be far less dangerous.

Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text. Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas. Analyze how and why individuals, events, or ideas develop and interact over the course of a text. Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.

Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text e. Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text. Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the approaches the authors take. Miss Ransdall, a teacher and a social activist, was invited by the American Civil Liberties Union to investigate the first of the Scottsboro Boys trials in and its aftermath.

She traveled throughout northern Alabama and southern Tennessee interviewing as many individuals she could who had been involved in namely the accusers, Ruby Bates and Victoria Price , or who had observed first hand, the case. Both accounts are in first person. What does the rabid dog Atticus shoots symbolize? How did Jem break his arm? What is the significance of the gifts Boo Radley leaves in the knothole? Why does the jury find Tom guilty?

What role does Calpurnia play in the family and in the novel? Why is Dill an important character? What does Mrs. Dubose teach Scout and Jem? Why does Dolphus Raymond hide Coca-Cola in a brown paper bag?

Why does Mayella Ewell lie on the witness stand? What qualities make Atticus a good father? Why does Aunt Alexandra move into the Finch household?