The Scottsborro boys and Tom Robinson

"There's something in our world that makes men lose their heads - they couldn't be fair if they tried.  In our courts, when it's a white man's word against a black man's, the white man always wins.
They're ugly, but those are facts of life."...

"The one place where a man ought to get a square deal is in a courtroom, be he any color of the rainbow, but people have a way of carrying their resentments right into a jury box."

 



According to Atticus in he quote above, something about race just makes white people go crazy.  Loosing Tom Robinson's case made him upset which is hard to see since he is usually a very calm person.  He didn't agree with or understand the jury's choice but knew that's the way it was going to end.

This part of the book relates to the history of the Scottsboro trial in 1931.  The Scottsboro trial was when two white women wrongfully accused nine innocent black men of rape.  In the 1930s it was common for the unemployed to hitch rides on trains, traveling from town to town either searching for jobs, exploring, or just going home.  On March 25 1931 nine young black men hopped on the train.  Just after the train crossed Alabama a fight broke out between a group of black and white teens.  Being outnumbered the whites lost. To seek revenge the whites reported the blacks for assaulting them.  Police then took every black boy seen on the train to jail in Scottsboro.  They were put on trial and did not win the case.

This trial compares to the Tom Robinson trial in many ways.  Tom Robinson was accused of raping Mayella Ewell. The Ewell's were poor and so were the two victims in the Scottsboro trial.  Just like the Scottsboro boys he was innocent but that didn't matter because there was an all white jury and he was put in jail after loosing the case.  He then escapes from jail but is chased down, shot, and dies.

All of these men being put in jail was very unfair.  It shows how during this time people were so prejudice and caught up in things like the Jim Crow Laws that they rather have had criminals roaming the streets and innocent men in jail.

I agree with Atticus. This story was sad but very true.  IF there was inequality everywhere else there should have at least been equality in the courtroom.  Everyone deserves to be treated with respect and be granted equal rights.  If I were Atticus I would have fought harder to try to win the case. If I were Tom I would have stayed in jail for a little while longer before trying to escape because loosing his life wasn't worth it.