Micro View

1. Racism in the courts of Alabama.

1931 Scottsboro Boys Rape Case

"The Scottsboro Case, a cause célèbre in modern American race relations, began in April of 1931 with a brawl between whites and blacks riding a freight train through northern Alabama. When Jackson County officials stopped the train near Scottsboro, two white women— Victoria Price and Ruby Bates—accused nine black teenagers of raping them.A Scottsboro jury quickly convicted eight of the nine boys and sentenced them to death. The U.S. Communist party took up the case, mobilizing mass protests across America and in Europe and mounting an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. In Powell v. Alabama (1932), the Supreme Court ordered a new trial on the grounds that defendants in capital cases were entitled to more than a pro forma defense. (The two attorneys for the nine youths had been given less than thirty minutes to prepare their case; one was drunk, the other senile).In a 1933 retrial, Ruby Bates recanted her accusation, and new evidence strongly contradicted Victoria Price. The jury nevertheless convicted. When the presiding judge James Edwin Horton ordered yet another trial, state officials removed him from the case, found a more amenable judge, and pushed through convictions and death sentences for two defendants, Haywood Patterson and Clarence Morris.In Norris v. Alabama (1934), the Supreme Court ruled that the two defendants had been denied a fair trial because of Alabama's systematic exclusion of African Americans from its jury rolls. In 1937, with the Communist party no longer in the case, the defense attorney Samuel Leibowitz brokered a deal whereby four of the defendants were released and state prosecutors tacitly promised that the others would be paroled once publicity had died down. Not for thirteen years, however, did Alabama release the last of the Scottsboro defendants."

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O119-ScottsboroCase.html

This happened during the same time as To Kill a Mockingbird was set. Lee has acknowledged basing a lot of the story on her childhood and this trial very well could have influenced Tom's part of her book. African Americans just could not count on a fair trial in those days based on their skin color alone.

2. Religion in Alabama during Great Depression

By the early twentieth century, many reform-minded Protestants, especially women, endorsed a wide range of causes, including opposition to the convict-lease system and child labor and in favor of temperance, woman suffrage, and prison and educational reforms. Liberal-minded ministers became pastors of many large, influential urban churches, provoking conflict with their more theologically conservative members. The social gospel—a theology rooted in the idea that the Kingdom of God should be constructed by devoted Christians in this world rather than at some future apocalyptic moment when Christ returned to Earth—gained substantial support. These theological controversies peaked in the 1920s in the battle between religion and science (particularly over the theory of evolution), and then receded during the 1930s, when people had the more pressing worry of daily survival during the Great Depression.

http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1617

People were religious during the Great Depression, but they had more pressing matters to worry about than religion. So it was a factor in their lives, but not a huge one as they were more worried about finding work.

3. Politics in Alabama during The Great Depression

The federal government initially did little, either. But after the inauguration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933, a host of innovative relief and reform efforts were undertaken under the umbrella known as the "New Deal." The New Deal programs were designed to "give a hand up, not a hand out" and administered, for the most part, by conservative business and political leaders here in Alabama. Having long struggled with the effects of illiteracy, sickness, and poverty, Alabama's problems were too ingrained to respond quickly to the modest help offered by the New Deal. Demands for greater state assistance to the needy continued for much of the decade, as did demands for a more fundamental restructuring of the economic system.

http://www.archives.state.al.us/teacher/dep/dep.html

It is important to know how people felt during this time and what was going on in the world of politics.

4. Monroeville during The Great Depression

Recalling what it was like, Nelle said, “If I went to a film once a month it was pretty good for me, and for all children like me. We had to use our own devices in our play, for our entertainment. We didn't have much money. Nobody had any money. We didn't have toys, nothing was done for us, so the result was that we lived in our imagination most of the time.” Freda Robinson Noble, a classmate of Nelle’s, remembered Monroeville during the 1930s as “truly a narrow world… No library, no recreation, no entertainment at all except the local movie theater and church activities. Believe me, it was a very sterile place to grow up… A number of my classmates were sent to private schools in Atlanta, Birmingham or Mobile. Those of us whose parents struggled to survive, working six days a week, more than eight hours a day, have different memories.”

http://www.amazon.com/gp/blog/post/PLNK5LSRICK4LHV7

Monroeville was no exception to The Great Depression and it is good to know how people describe it first hand.

5. Truman Capote: Famous Resident of Monroeville

Capote remained a lifelong friend of his Monroeville neighbor Harper Lee, and he based the character of Idabel in Other Voices, Other Rooms on her. He in turn was the inspiration for the character Dill, in Lee's 1960 bestselling, Pulitzer prize-winning To Kill a Mockingbird. Like Capote, Dill is creative, bold and had an unsatisfactory family history. In an interview with Lawrence Grobel, Capote recalled his childhood, "Mr. and Mrs. Lee, Harper Lee's mother and father, lived very near. Harper Lee was my best friend. Did you ever read her book, To Kill a Mockingbird? I'm a character in that book, which takes place in the same small town in Alabama where we both lived."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truman_Capote

Would be good to know about Truman Capote as a child since Dill is based upon him.

6. Professional Football Players from Alabama

1935
The NFL adopted Bert Bell's proposal to hold an annual draft of college players, to begin in 1936, with teams selecting in an inverse order of finish, May 19. The inbounds line or hashmarks were moved nearer the center of the field, 15 yards from the sidelines.
All-America end Don Hutson of Alabama joined Green Bay. The Lions defeated the Giants 26-7 in the NFL Championship Game, December 15.

http://www.nfl.com/history/chronology/1931-1940

I believe it would be good to know this information because Jem is a little boy that plays football and he would be excited about someone from Alabama making it big. It also gives him something to dream about.

7. Church in Monroeville, Alabama.

The decades of the 20’s, 30’s and half the 40’s could be looked upon as a time when the church grew up, maturing to full stature. If trials bring strength, then Monroeville church had muscles enough to overcome any adversary of the future.

http://www.chamberorganizer.com/monroecounty/mem_87072067

Having a church that was worshiping during that time and is still up and running shows the sort of people in that town. It also shows how religion is still a big part of Monroeville.

8. Monroeville embraces the history

Perhaps embarrassed at first, the town now embraces the story. The most telling demonstration of Monroeville's pride in the overriding message of To Kill A Mockingbird is its annual staging of a play based on the book each May. Local residents play all of the roles, many of them returning every year to recreate their performances. It's become so popular that all 1999 performances sold out the first day tickets went on sale.Kathy McCoy, who wrote and directs the play explains, "People have come to realize that To Kill A Mockingbird is a great treasure. It is truly universal, a message of tolerance and compassion. They are proud to be part of one of the world's most influential books."
An interactive performance, the audience moves with the scenes. Some of it is staged on the grounds outside the courthouse, while the pivotal scenes of the trial are staged in the courtroom. Members of the audience are chosen to act as the jury. In keeping with the times, only adult white males serve on the jury, and their instructions by the stage director are clear: they must find the defendant, Tom Robinson, guilty. This is Alabama in 1935, not the real world at the start of the second Millennium.

http://www.severnwriter.com/monroeville.htm

I believe this to be important as it shows that the people there understand the cruelty of their past and have evolved over the years.

9. Trainwreck in Alabama

The engineer and fireman were killed when the engine derailed after the tracks were alledgededly sabotaged by strikers.

The engine, tender and first five cars were derailed to the south of the track; the engine and tender stopped on their left sides parallel to the track, with the front end of the engine 222 feet beyond the point of derailment. The first two cars were on their sides practically at right angles to the track; the third car remained upright with one end on the roadbed and the other end on top of the fourth car which was upright at an angle of 45 degrees with and clear of the track. The front end of the fifth car was clear of the track, while the rear end remained on the roadbed, The employees killed were the engineman and fireman.

No track tools had been missed on this or adjoining sections, and at the time of this investigation. It had not been determined by whom this malicious tampering was done.

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=00CDaF

I find it interesting that this train wreck happened during that time because of tampering by strikers. This illustrates the length people would go in those days and it caused a big stir.

10. Alabama's top facts of 1930's

1930 State population= 2,646,248.
1930 Federal Census:
White population= 1,700,844
African-American population= 944,834
Urban population= 744,273
Rural population= 1,901,975
Cotton production in bales= 1,312,963
Corn production in bushels= 35,683,874
Number of manufacturing establishments= 2,848.

1931
March 25: Nine black youths, soon to be known as the Scottsboro Boys, are arrested in Paint Rock and jailed in Scottsboro, the Jackson County seat. Charged with raping two white women on a freight train from Chattanooga, the sheriff had to protect them from mob violence that night. Within a month, eight of the nine were sentenced to death. Based on questionable evidence, the convictions by an all-white jury generated international outrage.

1933
Tennessee Valley Authority created to develop resources of poor Appalachian South, including large parts of north Alabama.

1934
Bankhead Cotton Control Act, sponsored by Alabama Senator John Bankhead, Jr., passed to boost the price of cotton by limiting the amount a farmer could market.

1936
August 3: Lawrence County native Jesse Owens wins his first gold medal at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany. Owens went on to win four gold medals in Berlin, but German leader Adolf Hitler snubbed the star athlete because he was black. Today visitors can learn more about Owens at the Jesse Owens Memorial Park and Museum in Oakville, Alabama.
2007 Archives Week Art

William B. Bankhead elected Speaker, U.S. House of Representatives.

1937
State sales tax instituted to help fund education.

Alabama Senator Hugo Black appointed by President Franklin Roosevelt to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenancy Act, co-sponsored by Alabama Senator John Bankhead, Jr., passed to provide federal loans to farm tenants to purchase land.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071216201721AAmwbTe

Very important information to know about the state. Good to know what is going on and what it is like living there and what events affect you.