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An interesting column on the relevance of TKAM and how it is perceived by black authors and readers.

Transcript of an audio file on TKAM featuring Sandra Day O'Connor, Horton Foote, Robert Duvall and others.

"In a small Southern town during the Jim Crow era, a black man is accused of raping a white woman. During his stormy trial there are threats of lynching, as well as intimations that the white woman had been the sexual aggressor. That tale summarizes the plot of Harper Lee's novel "To Kill a Mockingbird," a staple of high school English courses. But it also describes part of the more complicated and less morally uplifting real-life story told in "Willie McGee and the Traveling Electric Chair," a half-hour documentary to be broadcast Friday on NPR stations as part of the "Radio Diaries" series (www.radiodiaries.org)."

"In this lesson, we explore ethical dilemmas that face normal people around the world, in all walks of life. Some of their cases are familiar, while others are obscure. But they hold one thing in common: They feature individuals who followed the guidance of their own moral code, often risking personal injury or community censure to do so. We'll ask students to examine the underlying characteristics of such episodes, and consider whether some acts are more deserving of support than others."

"What are the roots and legacy of minstrelsy and the Scottsboro Trials? How can stereotypes be used not only to reinforce a bias, but also to satirize that very bias? In this lesson, students learn about the minstrel tradition, consider how it echoes through stereotypes of African-Americans today and explore the legacy of black stereotypes and the Scottsboro Trials in popular culture, history and literature."

This guide is written for teachers and students who are studying Harper Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird. The guide is written specifically for students in the UK, but I hope it may be helpful to users from other parts of the world. To Kill a Mockingbird is a set text for GCSE exams in English literature. It may also be studied for teacher-assessed coursework in English in Key Stages 3 and 4 (GCSE reading

"As a long-time Member of Congress and first-time novelist, I've wondered how Harper Lee's character would do in a world where bedrock principles turn to muck-shaped and glazed by pollsters and media consultants. How would soft-spoken Atticus Finch come across on cable news spew? Could he survive some SuperPAC's million-dollar TV ad assault? Would a six-figure opposition research report make him consider the benefits of, say, corporate litigation instead of defending the poor and oppressed? "