Harper Lee
To Kill a Mockingbird
History & Background Notes
Harper Lee- Biographical Information
Work: Reservation clerk for Eastern Airlines in 1950s
Born: 1926 in Monroeville, Alabama
Youngest of 4 children
Parents: Amasa Coleman Lee & Frances Finch Lee
Education: Huntingdon College(1944-1945)
University of Alabama (1945-1949)- studied law
Oxford University- studied one year
Harper Lee- To Kill a Mockingbird
J.B. Lippincott: Publishing company who suggested she rewrite novel
1961: Won Pulitzer Prize for Literature
1960: Published To Kill a Mockingbird
1955-1958: Wrote To Kill a Mockingbird
To Kill a Mockingbird- real life inspiration
Maycomb= Monroeville, Alabama
Dill= Truman Capote -- wrote In Cold Blood
Fathers’ professions: attorneys
Avid readers: Harper Lee & Scout
Scottsboro Boys Trial= Tom Robinson trial
Civil Rights Movement1954: Brown VS. Board of
Education
Rosa Parks
Civil Rights Movement1955-1956:
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Martin Luther King
Autherine Lucy
University of Alabama
Civil Rights Movement
Little Rock, Arkansas
1957 1960
To Kill a Mockingbird published
Civil Rights Movement
1961
A brave group of men and women, black and white, young and old boarded buses, trains and planes and headed for the deep South to test desegregation.
To Kill a Mockingbird released.
Freedom Riders
Civil Rights Movement
1963
The March on Washington
1964: The Civil Rights Act is passed.
To Kill a Mockingbird- Censorship
Banned for:
- profanity
-“inciting racial conflict”
- use of racial slurs
However, TKAM remains one of the most-taught, best-loved books in high schools.
