Tom Robinson Case

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Imagine being a black man accused of rape when the crime wasn’t committed. Everyone in the courtroom is against him, and nobody believes the truth told. How would the feeling of being proven guilty of a crime not committed affect someone? Tom Robinson was a man accused of raping a white woman, named Mayella, and was declared guilty, even though Mayella made the move on him. Victoria Price and Ruby Bates said that they were raped and attacked by six negro boys, and injustice was served once again. Although the Scottsboro Boys case and the Tom Robinson case are similar in the aspect of blacks being accused of rape by white women, they are different in several ways.
The Scottsboro Boys case was used by Harper Lee as a storyline to write To Kill …show more content…
The attorney for the Negro boys was going to do anything in his power to help these boys be declared innocent. Not all of the boys were in the same train car, and the girls couldn’t even pick them out of a lineup. People knew they were lying, the attorney just had to prove it. This outlook of not surrendering until justice is served was shown in both the actual case and To Kill a Mockingbird. The attorney for the Negro boys was going to fight with all of his being to try to free these boys. Although all the fighting in the world couldn’t change the fact the boys weren’t white, therefore, they had raped these girls. Of course this was in the eyes of the jury and the people, the boys didn’t seem to stand a chance. Due to Atticus thinking that if he doesn’t take the case, he won’t be able to show his face in town: “‘The main one is, if I didn’t I couldn’t hold up my head in town, I couldn’t represent this county in the legislature, I couldn’t even tell you or Jem not to do something again’” (Lee 78). Atticus made himself believe he wouldn’t be much of a figure to his kids if he didn’t take this black man’s case, that people would view him differently, and his kids wouldn’t need to obey him. He feels as if he has to take it to prove Tom Robinson’s innocence. Atticus knows his job is to represent people, and in that everyone deserves equal representation. Just like in the Scottsboro case, Atticus was going to fight for Tom’s freedom because he felt like he had to, or wouldn’t have any respect left. When he first took on the case, Atticus just knew it was the right thing to do. Then he began to get wrapped up in it and made it a must to win this case. When the decision was made by the jury, it hit Atticus hard
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