Set in the rural South of the 1930s, Harper Lee's novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, takes place before the Civil Rights Movement. Macomb County is a place where blacks are seen as second-class citizens. One black in particular, Tom Robinson, is depicted as a "mockingbird," innocent, but reviled by the citizens of Macomb County because he dares to pity a white woman. Although Boo Radley is white, he as a shy man who loves the children who are his neighbors, becomes the second mockingbird. These children are Scout and Jem, and their lawyer father, Atticus Finch, sets the conflict in motion when he agrees to defend Tom Robinson against the charge of rape.

Atticus, a man who teaches his children to respect all people and tells them it is a sin to shoot a mockingbird because it is innocent and beautiful, accepts the unpopular job of defending a...