Atticus was a really smart man and had lived in the South and Maycomb long enough to know that Tom Robinson would never be acquitted of raping Mayella Ewell, a white woman. Sadly, that just didn’t happen during this racist time. Throughout our history, there are many real court cases that show the unfair treatment of blacks in America’s court system. As a matter of fact, the famous Scottsboro Boys trial in Alabama during the...
Atticus was a really smart man and had lived in the South and Maycomb long enough to know that Tom Robinson would never be acquitted of raping Mayella Ewell, a white woman. Sadly, that just didn’t happen during this racist time. Throughout our history, there are many real court cases that show the unfair treatment of blacks in America’s court system. As a matter of fact, the famous Scottsboro Boys trial in Alabama during the same time period in which To Kill a Mockingbird took place, the 1930’s, found nine young black men guilty of raping two white women on a train. They were all innocent of the charges.
The important thing about Atticus was that even though he knew he would lose, he tried his very best to defend Tom. In Chapter 9, Atticus tells Scout that he will not win the trial. Scout asks why, and Atticus tells Scout that, “Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win.” His defense showing how it would be impossible for Tom to hit Mayella Ewell with his injured left hand should have been enough to get Tom set free. However, the social climate of the time was that you would never believe or side with a black over the testimony of a white. Tom was doomed from the very beginning.
Atticus was able to have a small victory, however, when it took the jury several hours to come to a decision. This showed that Atticus was able to place doubt into the jury’s mind, but it was still not enough to acquit a black man. Unfortunately, before an appeal could be fought, Tom Robinson was killed trying to escape prison.
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