Most respectable fictional authors rely on past events from their own life as a model for the plots of their stories. This is exactly what Harper Lee did with the novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Harper Lee grew up during the 1930's witnessing firsthand a controversial trial in which nine black men were accused of raping two white women. The prosecution of the nine men became known as the Scottsboro Boys trial. The fictional trial of Tom Robinson, a character from To Kill a Mockingbird, is in many ways similar to the factual trial of the Scottsboro Boys. The two trials share similarities in their setting, characters, and outcomes.

The setting from the Scottsboro Boys trial and the trial from To Kill a Mockingbird with Tom Robinson have an enormous resemblance. To begin with, both the Tom Robinson's trial...