There has been many problems throughout the history of the united but after reading the book “To Kill A Mockingbird” by Harper Lee you are clearly informed about the racial problems that african americans have countered in the United States and still encounter as I write this. In the past century african americans have experienced terrifying and traumatizing events, those events are mentioned and described in the book. The events that i'm going to be covering in the book are the Ku Klux Klan or better known as the kkk, and lynching. These all point to the theme of racism in the 1900s-1960s.

Lynching was alive and well back in the 1930s. In the book “To Kill A Mockingbird” Lynching was mentioned and was actually in one of the scenes, scout, jem and dill follow atticus to the town's square where they see an attempted lynching of a black man who was accused of raping a white woman in town.” We were taking a shortcut across the square when four dusty cars came in from the Meridian highway, moving slowly in a line. They went around the square, passed the bank building, and stopped in front of the jail.Nobody got out. We saw Atticus look up from his newspaper. He closed it, folded it deliberately, dropped it in his lap, and pushed his hat to the back of his head. He seemed to be expecting them. “Come on,” whispered Jem. We streaked across the square, across the street, until we were in the shelter of the Jitney Jungle door. Jem peeked up the sidewalk. “We can get closer,” he said. We ran to Tyndal’s Hardware door-near enough, at the same time discreet. Moments later Scout, Jem, Dill and Atticus saw a mob come into town and hang a black man, this is better known as lynching back in the day. People in the south in the 1930s hung african americans in the streets where people could watch and would even participate in the brutal killings. In the article “History of lynching in the south documents nearly 4000 names” written by Campbell Robertson he writes “A black man by the name of allen brooks was being tried in court for assaulting a 3 year old white girl was dragged from the courthouse by a rope and was hung in the streets while the judge watched” This is considering lynching and was what happened in the scene of the book “To Kill A Mockingbird”.

In the book “To Kill A Mockingbird there were lots of remarks of the N word, a word used by slave owners and white supremacists when describing a black person. Also in TKM there were mentions and even a scene talking about the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). They were after you, weren’t they?’ Jem went to him. ‘They wanted to get you, didn’t they?’

Atticus lowered the paper and gazed at Jem. ‘What have you been reading?’ he asked. Then he said gently, ‘No, son, those were our friends.’

‘It wasn’t a – a gang?’ Jem was looking from the corners of his eyes.

Atticus tried to stifle a smile but didn’t make it. ‘No, we don’t have mobs and that nonsense in Maycomb. I’ve never heard of a gang in Maycomb.’

‘Ku Klux got after some Catholics one time.’

‘Never heard of any Catholics in Maycomb either,’ said Atticus, ‘you’re confusing that with something else. Way back about nineteen-twenty there was a Klan, but it was a political organization more than anything. Besides, they couldn’t find anybody to scare. Here is one of the many examples of the KKK being talked amongst the group of people in the book. In an article written by Andrew Blake on January 31st, 2017 named “KKK recruitment fliers distributed across 3 states in 2 days” he writes “within the past 2 days flyers were posted in north carolina, Illinois and maine. The KKK proposed a neighborhood watch program and a 24 hour klan line that claims the words “you can sleep tonight knowing the klan is awake” and “Are there troubles in your neighborhood contact the traditionalist american knights of the ku klux klan today” This clearly shows you that racism is not dead and is actually alive and well in today's society.

The main point is that racism has always been around. Most people argue that it doesn't exist anymore and it's dead. But if we have the kkk around still and we haven't tried to do nothing about it than really who is to blame for racism still existing in the united states. It has been a century and we still can't find a way to end racism, it's a shame.