Standing on Boo's Porch-A Civil Rights Perspective from "To Kill a Mockingbird"

Harper Lee in 2007

“Atticus was right. One time he said that you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them. Just standing on the Radley porch was enough.”

 

In the ending paragraphs of “To Kill a Mockingbird”, Scout says to her father, “Atticus, he was real nice…”

Atticus: “Most people are, Scout, when you finally see them.”

 

The words are prescient in light of the George Zimmerman verdict on Saturday night. I’ve often thought that one of the hardest things to do, and one of the best remedies to our ongoing race relation quagmire, is to cultivate the ability to get inside other people’s heads and see things from their point of view.

This is the beauty of the film, ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.” In it, we are able to see the world through the eyes of a child. Children understand things intuitively and can grasp emotional concepts much easier than adults.

 

In one scene early in the film, Scout innocently breaks up an ugly mob in front of the jailhouse who are bent on dealing out vigilante justice to the black man incarcerated inside. Scout picks out a man in the crowd, the father of one of her classmates, and immediately begins a dialogue with him.

 

The men are shamed by their actions and immediately realize what they have become. This is something that, sadly, doesn’t happen in real life very often. But the beauty of the film is that we can relate to the characters today and still find meaning in the simple yet meaningful story of a man with two children who defends a black man in a small Southern town.

 

We need to stand on the Radley porch. The Zimmerman camp does feel that their son/brother/fellow gun owner has been unjustly persecuted. And that he has been vindicated with a trial by jury.

 

The Trayvon Martin family supporters believe that there is no justice for a young black man who was not committing a crime, and only wanted to go home that evening. We can never know the truth of what really happened that night, but we do know that there are many underlying currents that are at work in this case.

 

The gun laws in Florida have been on trial, along with the justice system acknowledging a tragedy that ended in the loss of life. The black community has seen, in their view, a gross miscarriage of justice in allowing this young man to go free. And the young man who lives, Mr. Zimmerman, must carry this tragedy with him indefinitely. There is no real winning scenario presented in this story.

 

But the advice given by Scout, in 1964, still resonates today. We need to stand on the Radley porch and walk a mile in another man’s shoes. That may begin to elevate the conversation and open a dialogue that needs to continue. What if….? I was that young black man. What if….? I was George Zimmerman. How do I tell my children not to be afraid? What are the consequences of my actions when I carry a loaded gun?

 

Standing on the Radley porch is the beginning of a new way of understanding what the other side is trying to say. We need to stand on that porch and walk a mile in the other man’s shoes.