INTRODUCTION TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD September 15, 2010

Harper Lee "Writing is a process of self- discipline you must learn before you can call yourself a writer. There are people who write, but I think they're quite different from people who must write." —Harper Lee from a 1964 interview

(Nelle) Harper Lee was born on April 28, 1926, in Monroeville, Alabama. Her mother, Frances Cunningham Finch Lee, was a homemaker. Her father, Amasa Coleman Lee, practiced law. As a child, Harper Lee was an unruly tomboy. She fought on the playground. She talked back to teachers. She was bored with school and resisted any sort of conformity. Nelle Harper Lee: Early Life

Harper Lee: The Author Due in part to her English teacher, Lee decided to become “the Jane Austen of south Alabama.” After trying her hand at law school, Lee decided to move to New York to become a writer.

Originally, her novel looked more like a few short stories. But, after 2 years of editing, To Kill a Mockingbird was published in In 1961, Harper Lee received the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. To Kill a Mockingbird

Harper Lee and Truman Capote Truman Capote and Harper Lee went to school together, beginning as kindergarteners in Monroeville, Alabama. Although Capote moved to New York City in the third grade to join his mother and stepfather, he returned to Monroeville most summers, eventually providing the inspiration for Dill in To Kill a Mockingbird.

Capote read the manuscript of To Kill a Mockingbird and made editorial suggestions. She, in her turn, accompanied him to Kansas to help research In Cold Blood. After To Kill a Mockingbird was published, Capote resented Lee's success. He did not try to stop the rumors that the novel was as much his work as hers. Their friendship continued during the 1960s and '70s, but Capote's drug and alcohol abuse strained the relationship. Capote died in 1984 and at that time, he and Lee hadn’t spoken in years. Capote’s Part in Lee’s Work

September 16, 2010 To Kill a Mockingbird: Historical Context and Background

The Jim Crow Laws From the 1880s into the 1960s, a majority of American states enforced segregation through "Jim Crow" laws (so called after a black character in minstrel shows). From Delaware to California, and from North Dakota to Texas, many states (and cities, too) could impose legal punishments on people for consorting with members of another race. The most common types of laws forbade intermarriage and ordered business owners and public institutions to keep their black and white clientele separated.

Examples of Jim Crow Laws Restaurants It shall be unlawful to conduct a restaurant or other place for the serving of food in the city, at which white and colored people are served in the same room, unless such white and colored persons are effectually separated by a solid partition extending from the floor upward to a distance of seven feet or higher, and unless a separate entrance from the street is provided for each compartment. Alabama Buses All passenger stations in this state operated by any motor transportation company shall have separate waiting rooms or space and separate ticket windows for the white and colored races. Alabama Railroads The conductor of each passenger train is authorized and required to assign each passenger to the car or the division of the car, when it is divided by a partition, designated for the race to which such passenger belongs. Alabama

The Scottsboro Trials There are many parallels between the trial of Tom Robinson in To Kill a Mockingbird and one of the most notorious series of trials in the nation's history ‚ the Scottsboro Trials. On March 25, 1931, a freight train was stopped in Paint Rock, a tiny community in Northern Alabama, and nine young African American men who had been riding the rails were arrested. As two white women - one underage - descended from the freight cars, they accused the men of raping them on the train. Within a month the first man was found guilty and sentenced to death. There followed a series of sensational trials condemning the other men solely on the testimony of the older woman, a known prostitute, who was attempting to avoid prosecution under the Mann Act, prohibiting taking a minor across state lines for immoral purposes, like prostitution.

Comparison between the Novel and History Historical Context Comparison for To Kill a Mockingbird