North Attleborough:
Books Open Doors

 The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and Arts Midwest.

The trial of Tom Robinson is similar to the trial of the Scottsboro Nine.  "Both the fictional and the historical cases take place in the 1930s, a time of turmoil and change in America, and both occur in Alabama. In both, too, the defendants were African-American men, the accusers white women. In both instances the charge was rape. In addition, other substantial similarities between the fictional and historical trials become apparent." (Understanding To Kill A Mockingbird, by Claudia Durst Johnson)

Here are some links to information about this trial and other civil rights issues of the time. You may also want to borrow the video Scottsboro: An American Tragedy, one of the American Experience shows on PBS.

Famous American Trials: photos, information on the various trials, background of the times.

Primary sources of the trials including Judge Horton's address, testimony by witnesses and Supreme Court decision.

American Experience Scottsboro: to go along with the movie. Includes biographical information, program transcript, primary sources, information on the treatment of poor women, reactions to the trial from contemporary accounts.

Socialists' rebuttal of American Experience movie. The Communist party was active in civil rights and the labor movement throughout the south. They supplied the lawyer for the 2nd trial of the Scottsboro nine.

Timeline of the Civil Rights Movement: Harper Lee published To Kill a Mockingbird in 1960, in the middle of the Civil Rights movement.

Voices of Civil Rights: stories by people who lived through this time and more.