To Kill a Mockingbird: Then and Now" As of July 1, 2013 ThinkQuest has been discontinued.
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History and cultural milieu of the deep South in 1930s America—an Introduction Use of the Internet, an LCD player, and speakers will be useful. Before beginning the novel, the students should read in class The Need for Change section of the EDSITEment-recommended We Shall Overcome: Historic Places of the Civil Rights Movement for general background information on what life was like for an African American living in the south under Jim Crow laws. In addition to this site, the class should also examine Remembering Jim Crow from the Edsitement approved History Matters website History Matters. Particularly good sections from this site include those entitled "Bitter Times," "Danger Violence and Exploitation," "Whites Remember Jim Crow," and "Jim Crow Laws. " Both Remembering Jim Crow and We Shall Overcome will help students get a sense of the world Harper Lee describes in To Kill A Mockingbird.
Questions to Consider During Class Discussion: Define Jim Crow. Activity 2. Activity 3. To Kill A Mockingbird and the Scottsboro Boys Trial: Profiles in Courage. In an August 1960 book review, The Atlantic Monthly’s Phoebe Adams described To Kill A Mockingbird as “sugar-water served with humor ...”
Sugar-water? Far from it. Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird highlights instances of heroism and courage in a small Alabama town riddled with the poverty and racial tensions characteristic of the south in 1935. The novel focuses on the Finch family over the course of two years—lawyer and father Atticus Finch; his ten-year-old son, Jem; and his six-year-old daughter, Jean Louise, aka Scout.
Scout serves as the narrator of the book; her narration is based on her memories of the events leading up to, during, and after her father’s defense of a black man, Tom Robinson, accused of raping a white woman, Mayella Ewell. In short, To Kill A Mockingbird reveals the heroic nature of acting with moral courage when adhering to social mores would be far less dangerous.
The First Scottsboro Trials. Hollace Ransdell was a young teacher, journalist, economist, and activist asked by ACLU officials to go to Alabama to investigate and report on the controversial trials of the Scottsboro Boys that had just taken place.
Ransdell spent ten days in early May of 1931 travelling around northern Alabama and southern Tennessee learning all she could about the case. She asked everyone she met provocative questions about the trials, racial attitudes, and economic and social conditions. She talked to doctors, social workers, college professors, black ministers, judges, mayors, and the accusers, Ruby Bates and Victoria Price. Her report is easily the best contemporaneous account of attitudes as they existed at the time of the trial. Ransdell's unpublished report is balanced, insightful, and fascinating reading. Report on the Scottsboro, Alabama Case (by Miss Hollace Ransdall for ACLU) Complete Ransdall report in PDF Format. Teaching Activities. Declaring "War" on the Great Depression Teaching Activities Standards Correlations This lesson correlates to the National History Standards.
Era 8 -The Great Depression and World War II (1929 - 1945) Standard 2A -Demonstrate an understanding of the New Deal and the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt. This lesson correlates to the National Standards for Civics and Government. Standard III.B.1. Constitutional Connection This lesson relates to the duties and powers of the president and Congress as set forth in the Preamble, in Article I, Section 8, Paragraph 18, and in Article II, Section 3, Paragraph 1, that resulted in measures to provide for national relief from the economic disaster of the Great Depression. Cross-curricular Connections Share this exercise with your history, art, language arts, and government colleagues.