“It seems to us, however, that the South can well afford to have more such writers and books … chronicling little bits of ordinary life, and saying sympathetically as this writer seems to us to say so plainly that - small towns everywhere, North and South, are made up of many ordinary people some mighty peculiar ones a small minority who are worthless and even dangerous, and a scattering, happily of outstanding good and even great persons.” gave his “I Have a Dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Gregory Peck gave his acceptance speech for his portrayal of Southern lawyer and moral compass Atticus Finch.īut the Register noted the book’s strong portrayal of a variety of characters in small Southern towns, saying: When “Mockingbird” was published, several of the most inciting moments of the civil rights movement had yet to occur white supremacists had yet to kill four girls in a church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, and the police brutality against the voting rights marchers of Selma, Alabama had yet to be televised. The Mobile Press-Register called “Mockingbird” a “wonderfully absorbing story,” while acknowledging that the novel “will come under some fire in the Deep South.” In acknowledging those institutions’ flaws at the time, “Mockingbird” risked alienating many readers, especially those in the South.

Wayne Flynt, a friend of Lee, said the book stood out for its nuanced take on “the innocence of childhood and about the corruption of most of the institutions that were important like the church, the courts, the school.” “Go Set a Watchman,” which comes out tomorrow, tells the story of protagonist Scout Finch 20 years after the events of Depression-era “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Published on Jto critical acclaim, “Mockingbird” nabbed a Pulitzer Prize and eventually became an Oscar-winning film. southern states and the civil rights movement was beginning to hit its stride, Harper Lee was quietly developing two books that told the tightly woven culture of racism in the Deep South. At a time when Jim Crow laws still gripped the U.S.

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