To Kill A Mockingbird ConTEXTual Exploration

A. INTERVIEW: GROWING UP BLACK IN THE 1930s

IN McCULLEYS QUARTERS, ALABAMA
Mrs. Peacolia Barge, born in 1923, lived as a small child in an area called McCulley's
Quarters and grew up in Bessemer just outside Birmingham, Alabama. Mrs. Barge
completed her college degree after her marriage and then began a long career in teaching.
Her grandparents were slaves in Alabama, and her three children are college-educated,
professional men and women.
[some text omitted]
Interviewer: So, you would describe yourself as a small-town girl, growing up just
outside Birmingham?
Mrs. Barge: Yes.
Interviewer: And you are writing a history of that area?
Mrs. Barge: Yes, McCulley's Quarters was a place where poor, working class black
people, like my mother and father, lived until they could afford to move to a bigger house
or could afford to buy their own house. Someone I have contacted wrote me that the area
was once part of a plantations slave quarters. Even when we were there, three white
families lived in McCulley's Quarters in large houses on the edge of the neighbourhood
and owned all the other houses. I remember that one white woman in particular, Mrs.
Kate, kind of kept up with what was going on in the neighbourhood and came around to
help when there was sickness or a death in the black families.
Interviewer: What were the houses like? The living conditions?
Mrs. Barge: They were all shotgun houses, mostly two-room places. No electricity, of
course. Even after TVA [Tennessee Valley Authority] came to the Birmingham area, we
had no electricity until my father, who could be very stubborn and hot-tempered, fought
and fought until he managed to get electricity run to our house. The thing we hated most
about not having electricity was that we couldn't use a radio. It wasn't until about 1940
that we got a radio.
Interviewer: About how large was McCulley's Quarters?
Mrs. Barge: It was only about a one-block area, but it had everything we needed-a
grocery store and a barber shop and a blacksmith shop.
Interviewer: How did a typical little girl spend the day when you were about six years
old?
Mrs. Barge: Oh, I led a sheltered life. Mother always kept me dressed in the dresses she
made and I was kept close around the house. I visited neighbours and played house and

read. I never wore slacks or jeans. And I never took part in the boys' rough games. Boys
picked berries in the summer and sold scrap iron.
Interviewer: As a child, did you have contacts with white people? That is, did you have a
sense of yourself as black and without certain opportunities?
Mrs. Barge: Except for the few white people who lived in the Quarters, as a child I didn't
know many white people or have a sense of being discriminated against. My friends were
right there in the Quarters. There were very, very few children there, so I remember
primarily being with the adults. It wasn't until after I started school that I became aware
that we couldn't go to certain parks, couldn't swim in certain places.
During the thirties my mother had to begin taking in washing and ironing for white
people, so I began to see the white people she worked for. Then later I came to realise
other differences. For example, there were no hospitals for black people. The one or two
hospitals that would take black people put them in the basement. Of course the black
doctor, who had been taking care of you, was not allowed to practice - to attend you in
the white .
Interviewer: Did your family have any contact with white people who were in an
economic situation similar to yours-people whom we would call "poor whites"?
Mrs. Barge: My mother and I didn't, but my father did at his work. I remember him
talking particularly about the woman who worked as a nurse at the factory who always
abused any black workers she had to treat who were injured on the job. Many workers
would just try to treat their own wounds rather than go to her to help them. Some would
pull their own bad teeth for the same reason, rather than be badly treated by some white
dentist
Interviewer: Were conditions rougher in the 1930s during the Depression, or was it more
or less more of the same?
Mrs. Barge: We were always poor, but the Depression was definitely worse. People who
had had jobs lost them or, like my father, were laid off for periods of time. And if you
worked, the pay was often something like 3 or 4 dollars a week. What my mother always
said that people used the old plantation skiffs to survive: growing gardens, canning,
making absolutely everything and buying almost nothing.
Interviewer: What was education like for African-Americans in Alabama at that time?
Mrs. Barge: My mother, growing up on what had been the Morrisette Plantation, was
well educated. Churches maintained schools in the country, and children who showed
promise as good students were sought out and sent to these schools, if their parents would
pay. My mother was sent for a time to Snow Hill Institute. Her parents scraped and
picked cotton so that she could attend, but she didn't finish. The last year the crops were
too bad, and she couldn't go. Most, of course, were not educated. My father attended
school through the third grade only. in my generation, most children I knew attended
school, though many left at an early age to go to work. I believe that compulsory
schooling to the age of 16 did not come about until about 1941.

Interviewer: What occupations were open to African-Americans as you were growing

up?
Mrs. Barge:For women, aside from domestic work and labour like laundering, the only
professions or trades were nursing and teaching. Of course, you only nursed or taught
black people. Many women worked as cooks in private homes or restaurants, as maids in
private homes or businesses. There were no black sales clerks in stores. Men worked in
the mines, in factories, as delivery boys, carpenters, and bricklayers. They could operate
elevators, but they couldn't become firemen or policemen or salesmen. Some black men
worked as tailors. Those who went into professions became doctors or dentists or
principals or preachers within the black community.
Interviewer: What were the legal barriers that African-Americans faced?
Mrs. Barge: Well, of course, we weren't allowed to register to vote. Even though I was a
schoolteacher for twenty years, I didn't register to vote until the late sixties. There were a
few black attorneys who would take on cases, but at least in Birmingham in the thirties
and forties, black attorneys couldn't practice in the courthouse. Their very presence in the
courtroom was bitterly resented by many people.
Source: http://resources.mhs.vic.edu.au/mockingbird/interviewblack.htm

B. Time of Change: Civil Rights Photographs 1961-1965

Photographs taken by Bruce Davidson
On May 25, 1961, renowned documentary photographer Bruce Davidson joined
a group of Freedom Riders traveling by bus from Alabama to Mississippi - a perilous
journey that resulted in a series of moving images shining a spotlight on a critical
moment in American history.
The powerful black-and-white photos that make up the exhibit Time of Change:
Civil Rights Photographs, 1961-1965, depict the struggle for justice and equality during
a time of fearless activists, protests, marches, and police brutality.

In 1962, Davidson received a Guggenheim Fellowship and continued

documenting the different facets of the turbulent civil rights era, including the five-day
march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, with Martin Luther King, Jr. at the helm.
Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2357217/Time-change-Remarkableblack-white-pictures-1960s-bring-life-historical-events-intimate-moments-civil-rightsera.html

C. Caged Bird
By Maya Angelou
A free bird leaps
on the back of the wind
and floats downstream
till the current ends
and dips his wing
in the orange sun rays
and dares to claim the sky.
But a bird that stalks
down his narrow cage
can seldom see through
his bars of rage
his wings are clipped and
his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing.
The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom.
The free bird thinks of another breeze
and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees
and the fat worms waiting on a dawn bright lawn
and he names the sky his own
But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams
his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing.
The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom.

D. In Alabama, Its The 1960s All Over Again

02/17/2015 02:28 pm ET | Updated Feb 02, 2016
Brian Joyce Radio host, Talk Radio 102.3 FM
Associated Press
Good news, gay and lesbian couples. Gay marriage is now legal in the state of
Alabama!
Well, sort of.
Last Monday, the United States Supreme Court voted 7-2 to deny a delay on a lower
courts decision to strike down Alabamas gay marriage ban. In doing so, the
Supreme Court effectively made Alabama the 37th state in the nation where gay
marriage is now legal.
But Alabama is Alabama a state with a long, proud and shameful record
ofdefying federal court orders and ignoring Constitutional law. And in typical
Alabama fashion, Alabama has decided once again, as it did in the 1960s with
African-Americans, that it will not go gently into that good night!
Before the Supreme Court even announced its decision, Alabama Chief Justice Roy
Moore the same Roy Moore who was removed from office in 2003 for defying a
federal court order to remove the Ten Commandments from the state Supreme Court
building issued an order of his own, instructing all probate judges and state
employees to ignore the SCOTUS ruling, adhere to state law and deny marriage
licenses to same-sex couples.
As a result, we have a conundrum in Alabama. The Supreme Court says it cannot
refuse marriage licenses to gay couples, but its own Chief Justice says it can. And as
a result of that, many counties in Alabama dont know what to do.
Forget about the fact that the Supreme Court has spoken. Chief Justice Roy Moore
made it clear before the court spoke that he had no intention of following its orders.
Also, forget about the fact that under the Constitution of the United States, no state
much less Alabama has a legal right to deny its citizens the equal protection of
the law. Remember, this is Alabama. What didnt work in the 60s on AfricanAmericans may work today on gays and lesbians! Right?
Moores statements on the issue have been confusing at best. He told CNNs Chris
Cuomo that his decision is based on the law, not his own personal beliefs. Ive
never said it was about my faith and religion, he told Cuomo. Its about the
organic law of the country.

But in that same interview, he also told Cuomo Its about sexual preference
overcoming an institution which has existed in our state for centuries, and I think its
wrong.
You think its wrong, Mr. Moore, or you know its wrong under state and federal
law? These are two different statements. And its not clear from your statements
where you stand on gay marriage.
Of course, this is the same Roy Moore who has let his personal beliefs get in the
way of his job before. Thats why he was relieved of his duties in 2003. But
remember, this is Alabama! What didnt work for Roy Moore in 2003 may work for
Roy Moore today. Right?
At the end of the day, Roy Moores personal beliefs dont matter, and neither do the
personal beliefs of anybody else in the United States. All that matters is the
Constitution, which is very clear on the legal process regarding gay marriage.
The5th Amendment states, No person shall... be deprived of life, liberty or
property, without due process of law. A popular vote like the one that banned
gay marriage in Alabama in 2006 is not due process of law.
The 14th Amendment states this: No state shall... deny to any person within its
jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. That means no state can issue an order
or statute that denies equal protection to all its citizens. The executive order issued
by Governor Fob James that banned gay marriage in Alabama in 1996? Its illegal
and unconstitutional. So are the statutes passed by the Alabama House and Senate
that same year both are unconstitutional and illegal. This is Constitutional reality,
folks. Its not up for debate, and it doesnt matter what your personal beliefs are.
But again, this is the same Alabama that defied federal court orders on segregation
in the 1960s. Everything, it seems, is up for debate in Alabama! Its own governor,
George Wallace, once famously stated Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, and
segregation forever! That didnt work out too well for Wallace, but remember, this
is Alabama! What didnt work for George Wallace in the 60s may work today.
Right?
Enough with the gay marriage hysteria, America. If you disapprove of gay marriage
for personal and religious reasons, thats fine. I support your Constitutional right to
do so. If Phil Robertson from Duck Dynasty speaks out against gay marriage, I
support his Constitutional right to do so, too, even if I disagree with his words. But, I
do not support anything that goes against the Constitution. For the state of Alabama,
or any other state, to deny gay couples the equal protection of its laws simply
because theyre gay is not only wrong and immoral, its arbitrary, illegal and
unconstitutional. Its as simple as that.
And remember this, Alabama: The ten states with the lowest divorce rates in
America are Connecticut, Iowa, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, New York, New

Jersey, North Dakota, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Gay marriage is legal in nine of
those states. If your ultimate goal is to defend the sanctity of marriage in your state,
well, thats great! Whats working in those states may work in Alabama.
Right?