3/12/12

Kaitlyn Bernath

Sports Marketing 1

Alves

3/12/12

Compare and Contrast: “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “The Scottsboro Case”

In “To Kill a Mockingbird”, and “The Scottsboro Case” there was a lot of prejudice and racist people. The Judge was white, and so was the Jury. This meant that there was basically no tolerance for black people. In the courtroom, the blacks even had their own section to sit in. The judge and the jury had the verdict before they even started in the court. They ignored all the evidence that proved the offender not guilty. In To Kill a Mockingbird, the offender was Tom Robinson, and in “The Scottsboro Case” the offenders were the nine Scottsboro boys. The Scottsboro boys and Tom Robinson were charged with raping white woman. The three of these women wanted attention. Ruby Bates, and Victoria Price, who were in “The Scottsboro Case”, were prostitutes so they obviously wanted attention. Mayella from “To Kill a Mockingbird” was emotionally and physically abused. She did not even  understand what love was, and what it felt like to be loved. Mayella was supposedly beaten by Tom on the right side of her face, but evidence proved it wrong. If Tom had punched Mayella, he would have used his left hand, but he could not use it. When Tom was younger his left hand got caught in a cotton gin and that accident made his hand unusable. Bob Ewell, Mayella's father was left handed which proved him guilty of beating her. Also in the Scottsboro case, the two girls were completely unharmed and not injured in anyway , which obviously meant they could not have been raped. Also both trials occurred in Alabama in the 1930’s.

                There were also a couple of differences in the two trials, here are a few. In “To Kill a Mockingbird”, there was Tom Robinson and Mayella only (one on one), but in “The Scottsboro Case”, there were nine boys and the two girls(nine on two). Also, the nine boys in the Scottsboro trials were all teenagers, and Tom Robinson was a happily married man with kids. Also, the trials and convictions of the Scottsboro Case took years and years longer than the trials and convictions in “To Kill a Mockingbird”. Another thing is, “To Kill a Mockingbird” was a book and The Scottsboro trials happened in real life. But no crime in American history had more convictions, trials, reversals, and retrials as did “The Scottsboro Case”.