Do Now: Write down at least three things that you know about the 1930s. (think about what life was like, events that happened, etc.)

Do Now:

Write down at least three things that you know about the 1930s.(think about what life was like, events that happened, etc.)

To Kill A Mockingbird

Background PowerPoint and

Notes

The Great Depression

• Overspending in the 1920s

• Stock Market crash of 1929

• Poverty & Hoovervilles• President Franklin D.

Roosevelt and the New Deal

• World War II

Even people with great careers suffered because of America’s economy. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch is a lawyer in Alabama who accepts things like food rather than money from his clients.

Racial Segregation• January 1, 1863: Lincoln

issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared freedom for all slaves.– Intended to weaken the

South’s power during the U.S. Civil War

– Although slaves were “free,” black people were affected by state laws that prevented equality

– These laws were known as the Jim Crow Laws

Plessy vs. Ferguson

• Strengthened the already popular Jim Crow Laws

• In 1892, 30-year-old Homer Plessy was jailed for sitting in a “white” section of a railroad car

• Plessy was 1/8th black, but under Louisiana law, he was considered “colored” and was supposed to ride in the “colored car.”

• Plessy argued that his arrest was a violation of the Constitution

• Ferguson, the judge, found Plessy GUILTY of refusing the leave the “white car.”

Plessy vs. Ferguson

• After an appeal, the case went to the Supreme Court, which upheld the decision and perpetuated the concept of “separate but equal.”

• This enabled schools, courthouses, libraries, hotels, theaters, restaurants, public transportation, etc., to segregate “coloreds” from “whites.”

Jim Crow Laws

• The term Jim Crow comes from the minstrel show song “Jump Jim Crow” written in 1828 and performed by Thomas Dartmouth “Daddy” Rice, a white English migrant to the U.S. and the first person to make blackface performances popular.

• A caricature of a shabbily dressed rural black named “Jim Crow” became a standard character in minstrel shows.

etiquette

• Blacks were expected to refer to whites with titles of superiority like BOSS, SIR, CAPTAIN, MISS, or MRS.

• Whites referred to blacks using derogatory terms like BOY, LADY, GIRL and the “N” word.

• Blacks were expected to let whites walk in front of them on the sidewalk and signs reading things like “Negroes and Dogs Not Allowed” were common

Harper Lee

• Born Nelle Harper Lee, April 28, 1926

• Grew up during the Great Depression

• Grew up in Monroeville, Alabama, in the heart of the South, where racial tension was high

• Dad was a lawyer• Mother’s maiden name was

Finch

The Scottsboro Trials• In 1931, a fight between white and black teen boys occurred on

a train between Tennessee and Alabama.• Two girls on a train, one well-known prostitute and one minor,

were accused of violating the Mann Act (crossing state lines for prostitution).

• They immediately accused all nine black men of rape.

The Scottsboro Trials• Eight of the nine

boys were sentenced to death despite the fact that testimonies were changed and there was no real evidence.

• Appeals continued for years and only two were acquitted.

Acquittal Link