To Kill a Mockingbird

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Questions to answer:

  1. On whom was the character of Atticus Finch possibly based?
  2. Give two other examples of the influence of Lee's life on the book.
  3. What real-life event probably inspired the trial of Tom Robinson? Search for information on this incident (who, what, where, when why).
  4. How many years did this real-life event take to play out from the first arrest to the last pardon?
  5. Explain how the murder of Emmett Till may have influenced Harper Lee (include who, what, where, when, why).
  6. What is lynching? Give some details of its use against African-Americans in the United States.

Resources

Alberta Learning Online Reference Centre 

Use Grolier Online, World Book Online, or ELibrary Canada to find basic information about Harper Lee, the Scottsboro case, the Scottsboro boys, Emmett Till, lynching, civil rights issues, and the civil rights movement in the U.S.A.

Web Sites

CPL-One Book, One Chicago Harper Lee Bio http://www.chipublib.org/003cpl/onebook/leebio.html

Historical Background of To Kill a Mockingbird http://library.thinkquest.org/12111/SG/SG5.html

To Kill a Mockingbird  http://www.mlb.ilstu.edu/crsres/tkam.htm

bulletScroll down to the sections on the Scottsboro trials and Emmett Till.

American Experience - The Murder of Emmett Till http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/till/

"Till, Emmett." Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. 2007. Grolier Online. 4 Dec. 2007 <http://gme.grolier.com/cgi-bin/article?assetid=0290058-0>.

The Trials of the Scottsboro Boys http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/FTrials/scottsboro/scottsb.htm

"Scottsboro boys." Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. 2007. Grolier Online. 4 Dec. 2007 <http://gme.grolier.com/cgi-bin/article?assetid=0260620-0>.

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