LibGuides: To Kill a Mockingbird: Segregation

Read Me!!

The majority of your research will be found in the non-fiction reserve books and the databases. The weblinks listed here provide supplemental information.

When using non-fiction and Reference, make sure you also view timelines, charts and glossaries.

ABC-Clio American History

ABC-Clio Issues: Understanding Controversy & Society

ABC-Clio Pop Culture Universe: Icons, Idols, Ideals

Annals of America

Primary Sources.

Encyclopedia Britannica

Gale UXL Student Resource Center Jr

World Book

Image Quest

Discrimination Everywhere

Duluth Lynchings
The Minnesota Historical Society provides documents and a timeline of events.

Before the Scottsboro Boys trial, there was a similar incident in the 1920's with tragic consequences. Unlike the Scottsboro Boys, the men in this case were lynched. Jim Crow was not limited to the South. This occured in a nothern city, Duluth, Minnesota.

White Supremacy

Jim Crow Segregation: The Difficult and Anti-Democratic Work of White Supremacy
Compare what the textbooks say, what the historians say and what the sources say. You will need to click on "read the full essay" to see all the information.
Bigotry in the USA: Photos from Klan Initiation
A series of 20 photos taken for Life magazine documenting a Klan initiation. Klan members also intimidated Catholics.
The Ku Klux Klan in the 1920's
Although Harper Lee does not specifically mention the Klan in TKAM, the Klan was active throughout the South during the time period. This PBS page discusses Klan membership. There is a link at the end of the article regarding a Southern citizen who tried to keep the Klan out of his town.

Destiny Catalog

Find:

Advanced Search

Non-fiction and reference books are reserved for in-library use. To see the list of the books: search any keyword or subject. When the full Destiny catalog opens, select "Resource Lists" on the left menu and select "To Kill a Mockingbird" to open the list. Please see the Library staff regarding checking out non-fiction titles after your last in-library research class.

Jim Crow & Segregation

The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow
Excellent PBS website that explores various aspects of segregation. See the page on Plessy v. Ferguson. (Rosa Parks was not the first person to refuse to give up a seat.)

Jim Crow was not a person. Jim Crow refers to laws and attitudes that segregated white Americans and black Americans. Although the Reconstruction Amendments provided for freedom of slaves and voting rights, it had little change on enforcing equality.

Race: the power of illusion
Where did the idea of race come from?
Remembering Jim Crow
This website provides a sample of Jim Crow laws and how those laws enforced segregation. Audio interviews are also included.
Race and Place: An African American Community in the Jim Crow South
Listen to oral histories, read newspapers and view images that document segregation in Charlottesville, Va.
A Brief History of Jim Crow
The Constitutional Rights Foundation sums up how civil rights gained after the Civil War were eroded by Jim Crow.
Segregation
This is a page from the National Humanities site The Making of African American Identity. Explore the links on the left.

Rise and Fall of Jim Crow

This video, produced by California Newsreels, summarizes Jim Crow laws.

Separate but Equal

Our Documents
Summary of the case and the Supreme Court decision. There were justices who dissented.

The Supreme Court case of Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896 established the ruling of "separate but equal" and was the foundation of effectively legalizing segregation.

Supreme Court Landmark Cases
From PBS, this provides an overview of the case.
Plessy v Ferguson
Easy to understand summary of Plessy.

Plessy v Ferguson

Scottsboro Boys Trial

Scottsboro: An American Tragedy
PBS program focusing on the Scottsboro trial. Includes primary sources, timeline and special features. Also includes information on how poor women as a class were treated by the law.

The trial of Tom Robinson in TKAM has many similarities to the real-life trial of the Scottsboro Boys. Harper Lee was a child at the time the trial took place.

Scottsboro Boys Trial
This website from the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law provides documents and evidence from each step of the trial.
A Scottsboro Protest Exhibit
The University of Illinois Modern Poetry site shows literature protesting the trial.
Historical Context
This chart provides a side-by-side comparison of the Scottsboro Trial and Tom Robinson's trial.

Scottsboro Boys Summary

Emory University Associate Professor of History Carol Anderson explains how the Scottsboro Trial was a miscarriage of justice and the legal changes that resulted from the trial.

Prezi Comparison of TKAM and the Scottsboro Trial

E-book Databases

Click on the covers to access the e-books on-line. Reminder: When prompted to enter your id or library card number or password for Gale-UXL, remember to use the Fiat Library database password (the same password - not user - name) that is used for all our databases. All of these databases are also available in print Reference.

Great Depression and New Deal
Call Number: REF 973 GRE
ISBN: 9780787665357
This Gale Virtual Reference Library series includes an almanac, biograhies and primary sources.
U-X-L Encyclopedia of U. S. History by Sonia Benson; Daniel E. Brannen; Rebecca Valentine
Call Number: REF 973.03 ENC
ISBN: 9781414430430
African American Eras Library
ISBN: 9781414435961
This series covers the time period from segregation after the CivilWar to the Civil Rights era.
Bowling, Beatniks, and Bell-Bottoms
Call Number: REF 306 BOW
ISBN: 0787656755
This cultural history is arranged by year and decade.
U-X-L American Decades, 2000-2009
Call Number: REF 973.91 AME
ISBN: 9781414491257

Brain Pop

Fighting Jim Crow

Gov. Hodges speech - 1913
The governor of Kansas gave this speech urging the state House of Representatives to not pass a discriminatory Jim Crow law.
Remembering Tredyffrin’s Segregation Battle of the 1930′s
A local example of an attempt to segregate schools in Tredyffrin Township, Chester County in the 1930's. Black citizens fought the proposal and won.
22 Years Before Brown
Philadelphia Inquirer article referenced in above blog.
Supreme Court Finds Segregation Unconstitutional 1927
This newspaper article discusses the South's reaction to the Supreme Court's announcement.
Voting Rights Act
This act, passed in 1965, ends unfair voting practices based on discrimination.

NAACP

Interactive Timeline
Select 1920 and 1930. Click on the blue buttons on the left of the timeline to interact with the map and then click on the "more info" on the pop-up. Visit the rest of the site for more information.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was founded to promote and protect black Americans.