Rethinking Heroes, Victims, and Villains:
To Kill a Mockingbird
in Hindsight

by Kelsey Bates, Birmingham Public Library, Archives Department

Nearly 50 years has passed since Harper Lee published To Kill a Mockingbird in 1960. It was a remarkable year. U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy announced his candidacy for the Democratic Party Presidential nomination. The United States announced that 3,500 American soldiers would be sent to Vietnam. Hawaii had just become the 50th U.S. state, and the 50-star flag debuted in Philadelphia. Four black students from North Carolina began a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth's lunch counter, initiating similar nonviolent protests throughout the U.S. before President Dwight Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act into law later that year.

Though Harper Lee wrote her sole work at the height of the Civil Rights Movement, her story recalled a time period thirty years prior: the 1930s. In the years leading up to the Civil Rights Movement, the people of her fictional Maycomb, Alabama, were forced to ask a hard question that would be answered in the coming years: should a black man—can a black man—be offered the same impartiality as a white man in the U.S. justice system?

In 2008 we can observe the 1960s perspective from which Harper Lee was writing—and the 1930s time period about which she was writing—with informed hindsight. From a historical perspective, new questions arise: Did Atticus Finch do enough for Tom Robinson given the status quo? Was the turbulent 1960s the perfect time for Harper Lee to write and publish her novel; and how would readers react if she published it today? What new questions and perspectives arise as we read the novel as we age?

Wayne Flynt Chris Metress

These questions and others will be discussed on Saturday, April 12, at the Birmingham Public Library’s 10th annual author festival Alabama Bound. Foregoing its usual panel of Alabama authors, Alabama Bound programming will feature some of the areas top scholars who will discuss their views of To Kill a Mockingbird from the perspectives of law, history, literature, and culture. Panelists will include Alabama’s premier historian, author, and Auburn University Professor Emeritus Dr. Wayne Flynt; Dr. Christopher Metress, Professor of English at Samford University and To Kill a Mockingbird expert (Dr. Metress’s essay "The Rise and Fall of Atticus Finch" was selected for "Notable Essays of 2003" in Best American Essays of 2003); Assistant Professor in Educational Foundations & UAB Graduate Faculty Member Dr. Tondra Loder-Jackson; the actress Mary Badham who played "Scout" in the 1962 film; and Sandy Jaffe, Birmingham native and producer of the documentary Our Mockingbird, which will be previewed in the BPL Arrington Auditorium.

Alabama Bound will encourage visitors to participate in the discussion about To Kill a Mockingbird, and there will be time for audience discussion and interaction with panelists. To evoke a 1930s atmosphere, BPL will feature food and music inspired by 1930s rural Alabama. The Irondale Café will sell "slow food" boxed lunches. Musical performances will include Red Mountain, an old time string band, and an old-fashioned gospel quartet. Winners of a countywide high school spoken word competition will also perform.

Participants will be able to record their thoughts about To Kill a Mockingbird on camera for possible use in Sandy Jaffe’s documentary Our Mockingbird.

Alabama Bound will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, April 12. Please check projectmockingbird.org for more information.