Oppression post 2- A brief history of the TKAM time period by TP

 "I felt Calpurnia's hand dig into my shoulder. 'What do you want, Lula?' she asked, in tones I had never heard her use. She spoke quietly, contemptuously. 
'I wants to know why you bringin' white chillun to the nigger church.'
'They's my comp'ny,' said Calpurnia. Again I thought her voice strange: she was talking like the rest of them." -Lee, 158

     The quote above shows a clear glimpse into the social aspect of the era To Kill a Mockingbird takes place in. That's to say, the Jim Crow era (1896-1965). Not to mention (as I will probably later on) that in the years TKAM portrays, 1932-1935 that the Great Depression was in effect. Though the quote above better shows the oppression in the Jim Crow era so that's what I'll role with for now.
     The quote above was from Scout listening to a conversation between Calpurnia and Lula in chapter 12. While Scout innocently thought Calpurnia and Lula's speech was "strange," she was subconsciously participating in slight racism when she said that Calpurnia "was talking like the rest of them." Though because she was brought up in a time where oppression of blacks and racism were just a part of life that she most likely didn't know it was wrong besides when Atticus mentions/hints at that it was. Speaking of being a product of their time, the children making fun of Scout and Jem and the adults throwing jabs at Atticus about him being a "nigger lover," certainly fit that category. However, in today's society she should've known better and those people dissing Atticus about defending Robinson, a black guy, would/should most likely have held their tongue.
      Let's take a quick rewind back to eighth grade social studies. For those who need a refresher about the Jim Crow era, it was a time of extreme oppression and segregation of black people. The legal segregation part of it comes from the Plessy v. Ferguson which put into play the 'separate but equal', or segregation and the start of legalization of the Jim Crow laws in 1896. It went downhill pretty fast after that with most everything being segregated from churches to schools to water fountains. Yes, WATER FOUNTAINS, like seriously though!

a segregated water fountain

  The terms 'white supremacy' and 'white privilege' were quite popular in this era. The terms and picture above help show how oppression is a mental game as well as a physical one.Not so fun fact: Hitler thought white supremacy was so real that he thought Germany and white people in general would sweep the Berlin Olympics in 1936. Though Jessie Owens sure showed him up, winning four gold medals in track and field that year (and inspiring a certain boy to paint himself black and run around a track a bunch). In fact, there was a victory against Hitler's claim before he was even in power when Jack Johnson became the first African American heavyweight champion of the world in boxing back in 1908. But it would take until 1954 when things truly started to change with the unanimous supreme court decision to end school segregation in Brown v. The Board of Education and in 1955 with the Montgomery bus boycott starting with Claudette Colvin who refused to give up her seat on the bus 9 months before Rosa Parks and when she was only 15!

    As the civil rights movement gained speed, things started to get better for African Americans as quite a few of their boycotts, sit-ins, and protests worked. One of the most famous being the Selma march led by Martin Luther King Jr in 1965. People of all ages played a part in the movement from children to old people. For instance, here's a very quick but somewhat informative video about Birmingham, Alabama that isn't too far away from where the fictional town of Maycomb would be. 

          The Jim Crow era would last until 1968 with President Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act of 1968 shortly after King's assassination. But going back to TKAM which takes place in the 1930's, it was socially acceptable for people to be racists. Even so much that kids like Scout unintentionally are. Thus it is so unlikely that Atticus will win Robinson's case with the jury and/or the judge's bias that he flat out admits he will lose but will continue the case for personal reasons like how he wants to treat every person equally. Which back then was a very rare thing. And it was good that he tries to pass this on to his kids. Another brownie point towards dad of the year to you Atticus. 

      Though the Jim Crow era wasn't the only thing going on during the '30's. There was also this thing called the Great Depression (pretty sad name for a pretty sad time, genius). Now, for a quote that has Scout explaining to her teacher about the Cunninghams' situation.

"He didn't forget his lunch, he didn't have any. He had none today nor would he have any tomorrow or the next day. He had probably never seen three quarters together at the same time in his life. I tried again:'Walter's one of the Cunninghams, Miss Caroline.'

'I beg your pardon, Jean Louise?'

'That's okay, ma'am, you'll get to know all the county folks after a while. The Cunninghams never took anything they can't pay back...They never took anything off anybody, they get along on what they have. They don't have much, but they get along with it.'" -Lee, 26

        The Cunninghams are one of the many people who were hit hard by the depression. It was a time of constant struggle for most all but the really rich but it was especially bad for the farmers. Everyone in Maycomb was 'poor', even the Finches according to Atticus, but it was mostly because the farmers couldn't grow hardly anything and thus the economy went downhill nationwide at the time. Many people irl though struggled more than the people of Maycomb like in the cities with the many Hoovervilles built because people couldn't afford anything else. The stock market crash in 1929 also left tons of people in huge financial debt or ruin. Also, many people stood in line for hours or even a couple days for food rations that would be just barely enough to live though many people went hungry.

A Hooverville of Seattle

Many people stood in line for food rations,
and the sign just made things  feel worse

      So in conclusion, Scout and the kids of Maycomb's somewhat innocent racism was a part of life to them as they had grown up in the Jim Crow era, a time of extreme oppression of blacks. Also during the same time that made matters worse for the people was the great depression. Which, as seen by the Cunninghams, left many a people in a very bad situation. Thus you should watch what you say and never take things for granted as it could be a whole lot worse for you (remember the golden rule guys). And please, mind your tongue, and treat people equally for the love of God, like come on, we as a people should be so much better than racism and extreme oppression like in the Jim Crow era, seriously.

                                                                 Sources for stuffs

Jim Crow Timeline: http://www.cnn.com/fyi/interactive/specials/bhm/story/timeline.html

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggUt0gJh9U8

Pic 1:http://contextflorida.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/segregation.jpeg

Pic 2:http://content.lib.washington.edu/cgi-bin/getimage.exe?CISOROOT=/lee&CISOPTR=83&DMSCALE=100.00000&DMWIDTH=802&DMHEIGHT=640.13802083333&DMX=0&DMY=0&DMTEXT=%20hooverville&REC=15&DMTHUMB=0&DMROTATE=0

Pic 3: http://brucegarrett.com/brucelog/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/bourke-white-04.png

Quotes: To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Pic 4: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/c3/6e/b4/c36eb46339237f953b137dbabc7f965a.jpg

Homer: http://i.imgur.com/H5d7Inh.png

*The words with links on them count as a cite b/c they take you to the source itself so I'm not gonna put them here*

P.S: *facepalm* and I don't agree with Homer

The End

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