Harper Lee was born on April 28, 1926, in the town of Monroeville. Her parents' names were Amasa Coleman Lee and Frances Cunningham Finch Lee. Her father, a former newspaper editor and owner, was a lawyer who also served on the state legislature from1926 to1938. He served as the basis for the character Atticus. As a kid, Lee was a tomboy and an often reader and enjoyed spending time with her neighbor Truman Capote. He provided the basis of the character of Dill in her novel, To Kill a Mockingbird.

Lee was only five years old when the first of the trials to be a basis for the book To Kill a Mocking Bird occurred. The trials began in April 1931 in the small Alabama town of Scottsboro. These trials were those of the rapes of two white women by nine young black men. The defendants, who were nearly hung before...