This is an INDEPENDENT learning station. On your own, explore a variety of the sites linked below. They all relate to To Kill a Mockingbird: historical background, setting, Harper Lee, book reviews, poetry, etc.
In the last few minutes of the rotation, write three (3) comments in the comment box at the bottom of this screen, along with your first name and last initial and your reading teacher's last name (for example: Jenny R. - Torrenga). Submit your comments by hitting the "Add Comment" button when you're done. Your comments can be questions you had while browsing the sites, facts you learned, connections you made, or thoughts that occurred to you ... or any combination thereof. Please be appropriate; the comments will be checked by your teachers.
About Life & Little Girls - A Time Magazine review of To Kill a Mockingbird from the year of publication, 1960
Growing up Black in the 1930s in Alabama - An interview with Peacolia Barge, born in 1923 and raised in McCulley's Quarter, AL.
What was Jim Crow? - An article outlining the laws that separated blacks from whites and legally justified the treatment of blacks as second-class citizens.
Harper Lee Biography - from Biography.com
Harper Lee Biography - from the National Endowment for the Arts
Scottsboro Trials - These are the real life trials that inspired Harper Lee to write To Kill a Mockingbird and are considered among the most infamous examples of racial injustice in American legal history.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt - This is an overview of FDR's life and career. Most important, read the 3rd and 4th pages of the site, which cover the stock market crash of 1929, his election to the presidency and his social program called The New Deal, intended to help bring the country out of the Great Depression (programs of relief, recovery, and reform ... not unlike the stimulus package currently being debated in Congress).
The best horror films of the 1930s - A little pop culture from the book's setting
B&W photographs of signs enforcing racial discrimintation in the 30s and 40s from the Library of Congress
"Old Black Men" - a poem by Georgia Douglas Johnson, a poet of the Harlem Renaissance, an cultural movement in the 20s and 30s in which black artists and intellectuals explored historical experiences of black Americans.
Leadbelly - This site offers 30-second samples of the music of Leadbelly (born Huddie Leadbetter), a folk/blues/gospel songster of the 1930s. His music is indicative of the black experience in the Jim Crow South. (Turn the volume down a bit on your computer so as not to disturb others!)
Comments (Show all 414)
howardm@... said
at 2:39 pm on Feb 11, 2009
Megan K.
1. I think that the Scottsboro Trial was unfair because it had an all white jury
2. Shaking hands with a white woman could be considered as rape
3. The poem was very sad because it said that after they look forward to becoming equal they will never be equal
howardm@... said
at 2:40 pm on Feb 11, 2009
Megan K.
1. I think that the Scottsboro Trial was unfair because it had an all white jury
2. Shaking hands with a white woman could be considered as rape
3. The poem was very sad because it said that after they look forward to becoming equal they will never be equal
howardm@... said
at 2:40 pm on Feb 11, 2009
when i was reading about 1930-1940 movies there was tuns of horror movies and there were many different characters that inter locked by sequel movies
Sam R. -Howard
torrengs said
at 2:43 pm on Feb 11, 2009
Scottsboro Trials were extremely unfair. The witness told them the charges she made up were false, and the jury still accuses them of rape.
Andrew K -Torrenga
torrengs said
at 2:43 pm on Feb 11, 2009
Alot of that was really really sad i cant believe people would do that-Sara T.
torrengs said
at 2:43 pm on Feb 11, 2009
it's really scary that these things actually happened. i would be so terrified if i lived back then. it seems so weird to me that blacks couldn't do the simplest of things, like shake hands with a white person or talk to a white woman.
sarah h.
torrengs said
at 2:43 pm on Feb 11, 2009
it's really scary that these things actually happened. i would be so terrified if i lived back then. it seems so weird to me that blacks couldn't do the simplest of things, like shake hands with a white person or talk to a white woman.
sarah h.
howardm@... said
at 2:44 pm on Feb 11, 2009
Maddy d.
Scout Finch must be looked down upon for how she amuses herself
ellisa@... said
at 2:44 pm on Feb 11, 2009
Some bus drivers treated blacks well.
They could not vote.
The Jim Crow laws were hateful.
-Kendall J-L Ellis
torrengs said
at 2:44 pm on Feb 11, 2009
lauren d torrenga
i never knew that the segregation was so bad for african americans woooooooooooooooooow thats so sad
howardm@... said
at 2:44 pm on Feb 11, 2009
Hannah H. - Howard
When I was reading the FDR article, I had no idea that his wife, Eleanor, was a distant cousin. I also thought that it was interesting that Theodore was another distant cousin, but he was so much older than him. I also didn't know that in the 30s so many people loved horror movies, like Dracula, The Wolf Man, and Frankenstein. It was also crazy how racist many americans were in even the 30s. I thought that it was mostly in the 60s up to this point. Overall, all of these articles were extremely interesting.
ellisa@... said
at 2:44 pm on Feb 11, 2009
I was surprised that people would go to such great lengths to get a black person in trouble:{
torrengs said
at 2:45 pm on Feb 11, 2009
YEah i agree
-ollie
howardm@... said
at 2:45 pm on Feb 11, 2009
Maddy d.
everyone had to be ladylike back then, it must have been tourture
torrengs said
at 2:46 pm on Feb 11, 2009
yeah i agree-ollie
howardm@... said
at 2:46 pm on Feb 11, 2009
When i was listening to music i heard a lot of folk music that was sing songy
Then in the horror movies they were by mostly the same people
Sam R. -Howard
torrengs said
at 2:47 pm on Feb 11, 2009
in the what was Jim Corw Laws the picture that says No DOgs no negros and no mexicans is cruel
ellisa@... said
at 11:40 am on Feb 12, 2009
I didn't realize that Dracula, the Wolfman, and Frankenstein were all developed in movies around the same time period - late 1930's and early 1940's. Spencer M. - Ellis
ellisa@... said
at 11:42 am on Feb 12, 2009
I can't believe that if a black man lights a white woman's cigarette that implies rape, or that if they shake hands that implies rape. What a horrible law!
Sydney T. - Ellis
ellisa@... said
at 11:43 am on Feb 12, 2009
I read "About Life and Little Girls." And I found that it was amazing how a 9 year old girl basically learns the values in life, that many people learn at a much older age. Somehow she understands that all people really equal a truth that some people still do not accept. Very quickly she learns the injustice that appears in her town.
Joanne L.- Ellis
ellisa@... said
at 11:43 am on Feb 12, 2009
I read "About Life and Little Girls." And I found that it was amazing how a 9 year old girl basically learns the values in life, that many people learn at a much older age. Somehow she understands that all people really equal a truth that some people still do not accept. Very quickly she learns the injustice that appears in her town.
Joanne L.- Ellis
ellisa@... said
at 11:47 am on Feb 12, 2009
The Scottsboro trials had such a huge effect on racism in America, and I think that it's your opinion whether it was positive or negative. I also never knew that there was a communist USA group. I thought that America was always about democracy. Spencer M. - Ellis
ellisa@... said
at 11:47 am on Feb 12, 2009
The Scottsboro trials had such a huge effect on racism in America, and I think that it's your opinion whether it was positive or negative. I also never knew that there was a communist USA group. I thought that America was always about democracy. Spencer M. - Ellis
ellisa@... said
at 11:47 am on Feb 12, 2009
Does colored people include mexicans, asians, indians, or any other race that wasn't white?
Sydney T. - Ellis
ellisa@... said
at 11:47 am on Feb 12, 2009
Its hard to believe how seperated people were. The seperations of blacks and whites seem to have been really normal for them. Its to a point when they don't realize each other.
Joanne L.- Ellis
ellisa@... said
at 11:55 am on Feb 12, 2009
What do horror movies have to do with racism? Fran N.-Ellis
ellisa@... said
at 1:44 pm on Feb 12, 2009
People even separated water fountains and schools.
The jim crow laws were horrible, its hard to believe that they were actually enforced and existed.
I didn't know that the horror movies listed were in that time period.
Sonya V.-- Ellis
ellisa@... said
at 1:45 pm on Feb 12, 2009
The things that happened are unbelieveable. -Pam
ellisa@... said
at 1:46 pm on Feb 12, 2009
Myk G - Ellis
I didnt know that a black man couldnt offer to shake hands with a white man. It was considered socially equal and the two were not. Jim Crow laws were bad.
ellisa@... said
at 1:47 pm on Feb 12, 2009
BrIaN E
i feel like black people couldnt even say anything before getting beaten. Every little thing that happend the white man would do something to them.
ellisa@... said
at 1:53 pm on Feb 12, 2009
People even separated water fountains and schools.
The jim crow laws were horrible, its hard to believe that they were actually enforced and existed.
I didn't know that the horror movies listed were in that time period.
Sonya V.-- Ellis
ellisa@... said
at 1:54 pm on Feb 12, 2009
The things that happened are unbelieveable. -Pam
ellisa@... said
at 1:56 pm on Feb 12, 2009
people were hanged for now good reason
ellisa@... said
at 1:56 pm on Feb 12, 2009
people were hanged for now good reason
ellisa@... said
at 1:57 pm on Feb 12, 2009
Rebecca-Ellis
Old horror films set a standard for movies and books today. For example, there are many vampire themed books and movies that originated from Dracula.
ellisa@... said
at 1:57 pm on Feb 12, 2009
Rebecca-Ellis
Old horror films set a standard for movies and books today. For example, there are many vampire themed books and movies that originated from Dracula.
ellisa@... said
at 1:58 pm on Feb 12, 2009
Rebecca-Ellis
Old horror films set a standard for movies and books today. For example, there are many vampire themed books and movies that originated from Dracula.
ellisa@... said
at 1:58 pm on Feb 12, 2009
people realized that if they kept working on the farm, they would get deeper in dept, so they stopped working on the farm
ellisa@... said
at 1:59 pm on Feb 12, 2009
Rebecca-Ellis
Old horror films set a standard for movies and books today. For example, there are many vampire themed books and movies that originated from Dracula.
ellisa@... said
at 1:59 pm on Feb 12, 2009
Rebecca-Ellis
Old horror films set a standard for movies and books today. For example, there are many vampire themed books and movies that originated from Dracula.
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