To Kill a Mockingbird - Trial scene

This scene from To Kill a Mockingbird is a very accurate representation of the deep South in the 1930s. It highlights the importance of the boundary between black and white. In the beginning of the clip, Atticus Finch states that "this case should never have come to trial." This sentence requires some context from the rest of the movie. Bill Ewell's family is White trash. They are one of the most underprivileged and vicious White families in Maycomb, Alabama. Bill Ewell accuses Tom Robinson, a black man, of raping his daughter Mayella. However it is revealed that Mayella tried to seduce Tom, but was caught and beaten by her own father. The bruises and injuries Mayella incurred were used as evidence against Tom.

Atticus also states that there is no plausible evidence against Tom, no medical reports, nothing except the word of the supposed victim and a white man. The line between being black and being white trash is very thin. By framing Tom Robinson, Bill Ewell exercises his power as a white man to prove his superiority. This is a representation of the South during this era. Jim Crowe laws were enacted for the purpose of maintaining white supremacy, and lynchings were used as examples to any black person who tried to move above their designated status. This clip shows that for a white man to be of a lower status than a white man in the deep South was one of the worst predicaments a man could ever endure, and this clip is a classic example of the lengths a white man of lower economic status would go to in order to prove his superiority.