AN INTRODUCTION TO

To Kill A MockingbirdWritten by Harper Lee

The Depression 1929-1939

• Stock market crashed

• Nobody realized the effect it would have

• No money to replenish what was borrowed

Many found being broke humiliating.

The Roaring 20’s• The new concept of

“credit” • People were buying

– Automobiles

– Appliances

– Clothes

• Fun times reigned– Dancing

– Flappers

– Drinking

Why was this bad?• Credit system

– People didn’t really have the money they were spending

• WWI– The U.S. was a major

credit loaner to other nations in need

– Many of these nations could not pay back

The Stock Market• People bought stocks

on margins– If a stock is $100, you

can pay $10 now and the rest later when the stock rose

• Stocks fall– Now the person has

less than $100 and no money to pay back

And then….

• With people panicking about their money, investors tried to sell their stocks– This leads to a huge decline

in stocks.

– Stocks were now worthless!

• People who bought on “margins” could not repay.

• Investors were average people who were now broke.

• Herbert Hoover was president at the start

• Philosophy: We’ll make it!

• What He Did: Nothing• The poor were looking

for help and had no ideas on how to “fix it” or if help was coming.

• Farmers were already feeling the effects– Prices of crops went down– Many farms foreclosed

• People could not afford luxuries– Factories shut down– Businesses went out

• Banks could not pay out money• People could not pay their taxes

– Schools shut down due to lack of funds

• Many families became homeless and had to live in shanties

Many waited in unemployment lines hoping for a job.

People in cities would wait in line for bread to bring to their family.

Some families were forced to relocate because they had no money.

“Hooverville”• Some families were

forced to live in shanty towns– a grouping of shacks

and tents in vacant lots

• They were referred to as “Hooverville” because of President Hoover’s lack of help during the depression.

A drought in the South lead to dust storms that destroyed crops.

“The Dust Bowl”

The South Was Buried

• Crops turned to dust--no food to be sent out

• Homes buried

• Fields blown away

• South in state of emergency

• Dust Bowl the #1 weather crisis of the 20th century

Two Families During the Depression

A Farm Foreclosure

Some families tried to make money by selling useful crafts like baskets.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

• When he was inaugurated, unemployment had increased by 7 million.

• Poor sections (like Harlem) had 50% of the pop. unemployed

• Instated the “New Deal”

• People everywhere were affected by the depression

• It wasn’t until President Roosevelt took over and tried to put the economy back together that people even saw a glimmer of hope

Major Historical Happenings...

• Jim Crow Laws

• Scottsboro Trials

• Recovering from the Great Depression

• Racial Injustice

• Poor South

Jim Crow Laws• After the American Civil War most

states in the South passed anti-African American legislation. These became known as Jim Crow laws.

• These laws included segregation in…– Schools -- Hospitals

– Theaters -- Water fountains

– Restaurants

– Hotels

– Public transportation

– Some states forbid inter-racial marriages

• These laws were instituted in 1896 and were not abolished until the late 1950’s (even then still not completely).

• 9 young African-American men (13-20) accused of raping 2 white girls in 1931

• Immediately sentenced to death

• Trials went on for nearly 15 years before all the men were dismissed

• Started on a train bound for Memphis

• Several white men boarded and picked a fight with the black men.

• Whites were forced off train by the 12 black men. The white men reported to the authorities that the black men had raped two white girls on the train.

• They were immediately arrested and tried in front of an all-white jury.

The trials caused a huge uproar amongst the black community.

• Wrote To Kill a Mockingbird in 1960

• Based the story on her life growing up in Monroeville, Alabama

• TKAM was the only novel she ever wrote

Harper Lee • Nelle Harper Lee was born in Monroeville, Alabama, in 1926. Like Jem and Scout, her father was a lawyer. She studied at the University of Alabama and worked in New York. There she began work on To Kill a Mockingbird, in the mid 1950s. It was completed in 1957 and published in 1960 - just before the black civil rights movement in America really took.

• The novel won the Pulitzer Prize, America's top literary award, in 1961. It was adapted for the stage and was also made into a successful film. Yet Harper Lee did not write any more novels. She returned to Monroeville. Now in her 80s, she still lives there today.

• The character of “Dill,” Scout and Jem’s playmate in the novel was based upon Lee’s actual neighbor, Truman Capote

• Capote is famous for amongst other things, In Cold Blood and Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

• It has been said that he gave Lee Mockingbird as a gift.

• In 1962 the novel was turned into a film starring Gregory Peck.

• It received an humanitarian award and several Academy Award nominations.