To Kill a Mockingbird Web Quest Introduction

You are about to read the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. The story is set in the sleepy town of Maycomb, Alabama. Atticus Finch is asked to defend a black man charged with the rape of a white woman. Through the young eyes of his children, Scout and Jem Finch, Harper Lee explores the irrationality of adult attitudes toward race and class in the Deep South of the 1930’s. The consciousness of a town steeped in prejudice, violence, and hypocrisy is pricked by the quiet heroism of one man’s struggle for justice. To best understand the lessons of this great novel, you must first understand the author, the times, and the place in which the story is set.

 Website #1 – The History of Jim Crow

http://crf-usa.org/black-history-month/a-brief-history-of-jim-crow

http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/what.htm

http://www.history.com/topics/booker-t-washington

1. Where did the term, "Jim Crow," originate from?

2. After the year 1900, what did the term, "Jim Crow," become identified with?

3. What Supreme Court case upheld segregation, or "separate but equal?"

4. Who was Booker T. Washington? What was his stance on the segregation debates?

5. What was the name of the new literary movement, based in Harlem, New York, which featured "New Negro" poetry and literature that emphasized self-respect and defiance under the Jim Crow laws?

6. How did some southern black people try to resist and escape the Jim Crow laws?

Website #2 – Black Thursday

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Thursday

7. What does the term, "Black Thursday," refer to?

8. What was the date of Black Thursday?

9. Explain how the Wall Street Crash led to The Great Depression.

Website #3 – Harper Lee

http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/harperle.htm

10. What work is Harper Lee most famous for writing?

11. When did she win the Pulitzer Prize and for what piece of literature?

12. What famous Civil War general is Harper Lee related to?

13. Where and during what time is Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, set?

Maycomb County Map

Using the maps below, answer the following questions:

14. Based on the Maycomb County map, the Finch’s live next door to whom?

15. Whose house is the oak tree next to?

16. What town is the Cunningham family from?

17.What landmarks are near Tom Robinson’s house?