What insights does Brown vs. Board provide the reader about the novel's historical context (250-400)

The Brown vs. Board of education of Topeka showed to everyone that every race could learn and grow as a nation.  It helped stop the segregation in schools. The book takes place before Brown vs. Board in 1930.  It helps us to see how everyone thought that colored people could not be taught or learn or read.  But that was not the truth, they could learn and read, acuity better then the white people. Before the brown vs. board, most colored people worked as maids and such other hard working labor jobs.  In 1910 the people who couldn't read that were white was 20%. The colored, only 9%. A large amount of famous people tried against the segregation, such as Robert Morris, Alfred Ferrfax, and Thurgood Marshall. They got the Supreme Court to make it so segregation was illegal. In the book they do talk down on colored people because they believe that they are not smart. This is evident when they are talking about Atticus taking on the case of the girl being raped by Tom Robinson.

Connections to “Doubt”: What role does gossip play in TKAM? (500-750)

Gossip
Definition of Gossip- rumors, especially about the personal or private affairs of other.

The role of gossip in the Pulitzer Prize winning novel To Kill A Mockingbird is to show details about other characters. Even if some are wrong, some are right.  In the book they talk about Boo Radley and they talk about how he killed his parents and that he died in his house. But how do we know this is true? Latter in the book they do mention that he is still alive but doesn't want to come out of his house. The gossip in the book plays a big role. Not only does the children speak of the roomers but so do the adults.

The book is during the great depression in the 1930. So that could play a part. Most people didn't have money, and wanted to pass the time by talking about their neighbors. But these rumors were most of the time true and could really hurt a person, because once it got out, you can’t ever take it back. That was also explained in the video clip of Doubt with the gutting of a pillow and the feathers.
 

Who is Harper Lee

Harper Lee was born on April 28, 1926, in Monroeville, Alabama.  She was the only girl in her family with 4 brothers.  Harper worked with her school's paper the " Rammer Jammer".  It helped her learn that writing was what she wasted to do with her life. In 1956 Lee started to write To Kill a Mockingbird.  In July of 1960 the book was  published.  The next year the book won the Pulitzer Prize.  Since then she has lived a good life, but she never got an other book to be published. She also helped an other famous author  Truman Capote. 

http://www.biography.com/articles/Harper-Lee-9377021?part=1