Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson — Racism and Criminal Justice in the South

Atticus Finch stands as one of the most compelling fictional portraits of a man devoted to principle above all else, regardless of the personal costs. His defense of a young black man falsely accused of rape due to a casual relationship with a white woman was performed at tremendous risk to himself and his family. The setting that inspired this famous novel, the little town of Monroeville, Alabama and author Harper Lee’s hometown, was a typical town of the Deep South from the early 20th century: virulently racist and ruthless in punishing any transgression of a post-Civil War racial order that resigned black people to the status of second class citizen. The realism of this novel in its portrayal of this fact is sobering: despite Finch’s brave defense, Tom Robinson is convicted and later shot and killed during an attempted prison escape.

Atticus Finch (left), played by Gregory Peck, in the film adaption of To Kill a Mockingbird

We think of the circumstances of this novel as being from another time in the distant past. However, those who experienced the later years of Jim Crow are still alive, and many areas of the Deep South are still haunted by its legacy. Many laws that were put into place to enforce the subservience of black men and women remained on the books until very recently. Anti-miscegenation laws forbidding interracial marriage and sexual relationships where not ruled unconstitutional until 1967, and…