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To Kill A Mockingbird

Decent Essays

To Reflect on Mockingbird
To Kill A Mockingbird reflected the contentious race relations of the 1930’s-1960’s, and sparked nationwide examination of racism. There are countless court cases that closely resemble the trial that took place in the novel, such as the Scottsboro Trials. The book was published right before the culmination of the Civil Rights Movement. In the years after the book’s publication, the Freedom Riders made their famous trip across the South, and the March on Washington took place two years afterward. This book was generally received positively. According to The Encyclopedia of Alabama, in 1991, The Library of Congress asked 5,000 people to choose a book that had made the biggest difference in their life; To Kill a …show more content…

Many of the most important quotes in the book are about justice. “As you grow older, you’ll see white men cheat black men every day of your life... that white man is trash” (295). Atticus is referring to the impunity granted to white men, and their abuse of this privilege. This is a crucial lesson today, considering the heated debate about police brutality and bias in our justice system. The subject of To Kill A Mockingbird is an unsubstantiated accusation against a black man that resulted in the man being convicted. Ethnic minorities are all too familiar with this tale. The U.S. Sentencing Commission revealed that in the federal system black offenders receive 10% longer sentences than white offenders for the same crimes. According to The Sentencing Project, African American youth are about 16% of the youth population, yet 37% of their cases transferred to criminal court and 58% of black youth are sent to adult prisons. To Kill A Mockingbird shows young readers that bias and racism are never okay, and they can be especially harmful in legal issues. Tom Robinson’s life was taken due to racism in a federal court; many would argue the same for the deaths of Thomas Griffin and Meeks Griffin, Leo Jones, and Larry Griffin, only three of the myriad of black men who were sentenced to death and later proven innocent.
Atticus also teaches the reader that real courage is when “you know you’re licked

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