During the time period in which Harper Lee's novel,
To Kill a Mockingbird, takes place, Alabama, like all of the Deep
South, was highly segregated. Whites and blacks lived and socialized apart, and Tom Crow
laws were still in affect. Women still did not have equal rights, so it is safe to say
that Negroes and women did not have much say in what was fair and just. White men had
the upper hand as far as decision-making and enacting laws, and due to the widespread
racial discrimination that enveloped many men, Negroes rarely received equitable
treatment. In the Tom Robinson trial, it was an all-white jury who decided Tom's fate,
and Scout came to the realization that they had already made up their mind before the
trial began.
... in the secret courts of men's hearts Atticus
had no case. Tom was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and
screamed.
Though there were
men like Atticus Finch, who treated black and white men and women equally, they were a
rare breed in Maycomb.
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