On Friday April 9th I went to a celebration of 50 years of "To Kill A Mockingbird". First there was a discussion panel at the 16th Street Baptist Church on how the book has influenced people individually and also Birmingham and the State of Alabama as a whole. This was followed by an art exhibition based on the novels themes which was shown at the civil rights institute. I was interested in going not only because "To Kill A Mockingbird" is one of my favorite books, but also because I wanted to find out how this book has influenced people who grew up during segregated times in Alabama. For those of you who do not know much about the book I will give you a brief summary. The book was written by a woman, Harper Lee, and published in 1960. It is based during the great depression and based on people that were in Harper Lee's life when she was a child. "To Kill A Mockingbird" mainly deals with racial injustice, gender roles, and innocence lost. Some other issues that are faced in the book are mental illnesses, social class, abuse, and the fear of the unknown. For those of you who have read this novel you all know that after reading it you walk away with a sense of inspiration to be a better person...to be more accepting of others and to learn to walk in other peoples shoes.
So, I walked in to the 16th Street Baptist Church, which I am ashamed to say I had never been to before. Knowing the historical value this church has here in Birmingham I felt just by walking through the doors of that building that we are still breaking down barriers today. Once I got situated into a pew i had a few minutes to look around before the discussion panel started. I noticed the beautiful stained glass windows that went from the floor to the ceiling and there was even stained glass tiles in the ceiling. I also couldn't help noticing that all to familiar smell of moth balls...that strange smell that overwhelms you as you enter into many grandparents houses. Haha...anyway...Another feature of the church that I thought was interesting was a huge organ along the wall of the church behind the pulpit. All of these things truly set my mind into a historical state. I was definitely ready to learn. So, the discussion panel started and they introduced the 4 panelists: Dean of the Cumberland school of law John Carroll, A black female lawyer who was a child during the 60s Delores Boyd, Jonathan Bass, and literary critic Susan Swagler. Each of the panelists discussed what they thought of the book and how they thought it influenced each of them as individuals and how they thought it influenced our society then and still influences our society today. Ill be honest though, those women did a lot more talking than the men, but i guess us women just love when we get to talk all we want!
So here are a mixture of their opinions and a little bit of mine:
"To Kill A Mockingbird" is definitely part of our historical imagination here in Alabama. When the book came out in 1960 Birmingham was still a war zone for the civil rights movement. Segregation was still an issue in our city. It is truly hard to believe that such a short time ago there were so many issues here in Birmingham. The novel was originally meant to be a tribute to Harper Lee's father but it quickly became a symbol for civil rights. One of the issues in the novel (the trial of Tom Robinson) is loosely based on an event that happened near Harper Lee's home town of Monroeville Alabama. A black man, Walter Lett was accused of raping a white woman near Monroeville in 1934. Also, her father was a lawyer and defended two black boys who were wrongly accused of rape. They lost the case and the boys were hanged. One panelist said "To Kill A Mockingbird" is a story of conflict of the human soul and one mans conscious. The book revealed a harsh and painful reality...the perception of black inferiority infiltrated even our courts. Back then it was law that no black man or woman could have any rights. I can not imagine living in a time when a person was not able to have rights just because of the color of their skin. Just think...this all happened in the last century. So in saying that another spark or influence of the novel was that it inspired people to go to law school so they too could stand up for what is right and to make a difference in the justice system.
Another issue addressed in the book is mental illnesses. Boo Radley, the next door neighbor to Scout is a very strange man who the children of the neighborhood are fascinated with yet still terrified of. Throughout the novel the children exchange gifts with him and the children come to find that Boo is not harmful but that he is just a person like the rest of us who needed to be respected yet protected. She never understood Boo Radley until the end when she finally could learn to see things through his eyes. Also, Scout, being a young child has an inability to understand why the town disapproves of her and she is made fun of because of her father representing a black man. Her father tells her just to ignore it. All of this shows us that it is not just about black people and white people. It is about how you treat every person you meet every single day.
So this brings us to the influences of the novel today. I believe that in Alabama we are still dealing with the above issues, but on a milder scale. As Harper Lee said herself "People just don't understand the south". One panelist said that if we put our children today around other children of different races then they would see how alike they are and possibly treat people other than them equally as they grew up. I completely agree with this. When i was in elementary school I was a minority, but I never remember being judged or mistreated for who I was or the color of my skin. Then in the sixth grade I moved to a majority white school in a different school system and suddenly there were cliques everywhere. Not only was every race separated but there were cliques in every racial group. I had no clue where to fit in. I made the decision to be friends with whoever I felt like being friends with but I did get comments made behind my back for being this way. Then in college I decided to come to UAB which is now rated the third most diversified university in America. Fortunately I am a part of the art program here so pretty much everyone is accepting of everyone over here. But when I branch out to other parts of the campus I do notice that people are still separating themselves. It is strange to me why everyone doesn't intermingle. I hope that UAB continues to become more diversified but at the same time finds a way to help students break down barriers and discover that we are all the same. SO...I believe that everyone should read "To Kill A Mockingbird" because it teaches you to be a citizen of the world and respect the person next to you...no matter what race, sex, religion, sexual orientation, political view, or any other difference they may have.
PS-We were also told a story of how Harper Lee had the final draft of the novel and was so frustrated she threw the entire thing out of the window onto the snow covered ground. When she called her editor and told him he made her go pick it all back up. Just think...what would have happened if she would not have gone to get those pages...what would have happened if we were without such an amazing novel that made such a difference in all our lives?!
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