When Aunt Alexandra invited her missionary circle over for
tea in Chapter 24 of To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout saw that they
were "fighting the good fight all over the house." The featured topic of the day was the
"squalid lives" of the Mrunas, an uncivilized and un-Christian African tribe being
tended to by a missionary supported by their church. The women promised to give their
full support for the cause of civilizing the Mrunas, who, because of their uncivilized
ways, "no white person'll go near 'em" but the missionary. The Mrunsas were full of
"immorality... sin and squalor" as well as
disease.
However, during a break for refreshments, several
of the women spoke harshly of the African-American men and women in their own town. Mrs.
Merriweather was upset at the dissatisfaction of "the cooks and field hands" about the
outcome of the Tom Robinson trial. She believed that if they knew that the town's white
people had forgiven them, all would be forgotten. Mrs. Merriweather referred to Tom as a
"darky," and she later commented that she had considered firing her "sulky" maid, Sophy,
if she had kept complaining about it. She later condemned President Roosevelt's wife for
coming to Birmingham "to sit with 'em."
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