To Kill A Mockingbird

Background Information on the

Novel
Harper Lee
- Nelle Harper Lee was born in
Monroeville, Alabama on April
28, 1926, and was the
youngest of four children of
Amasa Coleman Lee and
Frances Cunningham Finch
Lee.
-TKAM was Lees first and only
novel.
-TKAM has many details that
are autobiographical.

The Deep South
TKAM is set in the early 1930s in the
small town of Maycomb, Alabama
At this time there was a lot of racial strife.
Many Southerners were Confederates
and believed African Americans to be
inferior, and as a result were very
discriminated against.
Segregation
During the 1930s to
1960s segregation
between races was
widely practiced.
- Blacks and whites were
separated in almost all
aspects of the public
realms.
The Great Depression
TKAM is also set
in the era of the
Great Depression,
which is integral to
understanding the
plot and character
motivations.

The Great Depression
As a result of the stock
market crash on Tuesday
October 28th, 1929, the
United States economy
went into a crushing
recession leaving much of
the countrys population
poor and homeless.

Millions of
people lost their
jobs, homes
and way of life.
The result was
extreme
poverty and
political and
social unrest.
Many people traveled from town to town searching for
work via the railroads or car.
Shanty Towns
These migrant workers set up shelters made
of scrap lumber and sheet metal. These
shelters were often raided and destroyed by
local authorities.
There was great rivalry for jobs during the
1930s. As a result, conflict between blacks
and whites increased.
The Scottsboro Trial
The Scottsboro Trial refers to a case in
1931 when nine African American men
were accused, charged and wrongly
convicted of the rape of two white women.
Originally eight of the
nine men were
sentenced to death by
an all white jury.
The outcome of the
trial outraged much of
the world and brought
to light the importance
of the Civil Rights
Movement.
The trial in TKAM has
many parallels to the
Scottsboro Trial.
Civil Rights Movement
Was a movement aimed at abolishing
racial discrimination against African
Americans and restoring suffrage in the
Southern States.
From 1955-1968

Events of the Civil Rights Movement included:
The Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1955-1956
-On Dec 1st, 1955 Rosa Parks refused to give
up her seat on the bus for a white passenger.
She was arrested, tried and convicted for
disorderly conduct.
-Most of Montgomerys 50,000 African
Americans supported the boycott which
lasted 381days.
-The boycott reduced bus revenues by 80
percent.
-A federal court ordered Montgomerys buses
desegregated in Nov 1956.
-Student Sit-ins
-Freedom Rides
-The Little Rock Nine
-Intergration of
Mississipi Universities
-Birmingham Campaign
-March on Washington,
1963

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair,
I say to you today, my friends.
And so even though we face the
difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still
have a dream. It is a dream deeply
rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation
will rise up and live out the true meaning
of its creed: We hold these truths to be
self-evident, that all men are created
equal. - Martin Luther King Jr.
Impact of Novel
TKAM was a groundbreaking novel in
1960 and is regarded as a masterpiece
of American literature.
Harper Lee won a Pulitzer Prize for the
novel in 1961
It has been translated into forty
languages and appeals to readers from
various ages and backgrounds.