At the beginning of chapter 12, we discover that the black community has as much personal pride and is just like the white one. A quote that presents this is when Calpurnia puts great time and effort into getting Jem and Scout ready for the church by making them wear ‘petticoats and patent leather shoes’ and ‘scrubbing them with soap harder than ever.’ This demonstrates the importance of religion and also cleanliness within the Negroes. It’s also shown when on entering the church, there is a ‘warm, bittersweet smell of clean Negro,’
The church also brings the Negroes together, making them a close knit brotherhood. This is exhibited when they all agree to help Tom’s family and obey the Reverend by donating money to Helen, Tom’s wife, for ‘the next three Sundays.’ Atticus Finch very courageously tries his best to let Tom Robinson be given justice. He helped Tom in many ways, for example, when Mr Cunningham tried to hurt Tom, Atticus purposely locked the door so no-one could harm him. And most importantly, Atticus fought his court case. Harper Lee has shown the black community to be very appreciative towards people that do them good. When the kitchen table was ‘loaded with goods sent over by the coloured folks,’ it was because they felt indebted towards Atticus because he fought Tom’s case ; even thought it was evident he was going to lose the case. This example demonstrates the unity of the black community once again. Atticus didn’t help any one of them directly, but because the Negroes believe they are one all, they showed their gratefulness towards him.
The majority of the Negroes follow the principles of Martin Luther King, who believed in non-violent protesting, and are respectful towards the white people. We know this as when Jem and Scout enter the church, most coloured folks acknowledged them by making ‘gestures of respectful attention.’ The minority,however, in this case, Lula, walk on the path of Malcolm X, who despised White people . We know this because she was the only Negro to raise an objection about ‘bringin’ white chillun to nigger church.’ Despite the fact that the black people were courteous towards the white population, ‘the church that Negroes used to worship in on Sundays, white men gambled in on weekdays.’ This presents the lack of respect and impoliteness of the white community towards the opposite race and their place of worship. On the other hand, even though the Negroes tend to be diplomatic and respectful where the white community is concerned, they take care not to become too close to them. During the Tim Johnston episode, when Calpurnia needed to inform all the neighbours about the dog and carelessly used the front door of the Radley House, she was told by Scout to use the ‘back door.’ This presents just to what extent prejudice can go to in Maycomb, that even in an emergency, everyone is aware of the fact that she is using the front door, when she shouldn’t, because she is black.
When Mr Link Deas announces that Tom has ‘worked for him for eight years and he hadn’t had the slightest speck of trouble frim him,’ we can compare Tom Robinson to the mockingbird that Miss Maudie earlier describes in the novel. She said that it was a ‘sin to kill a mockingbird,’ as ‘they don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy.’ Tom Robinson and the rest of the black population in Maycomb can be linked to the mockingbird because they don’t do anything wrong; they don’t meddle in anyone’s business or create trouble. They happily live their lives, but still are prejudiced and are treated with great disregard and impudence.
Harper Lee has presented the black community to us so that they play a major role in contributing to the main theme in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ of appearance and reality. From the white community’s viewpoint, the Negroes are inferior to the rest of the county. They are percieved as low class and are discriminated against purely because of the colour of their skin. But in reality, they are as Christian at heart as the white community, if not more, in comparison to the Ewells.They are magnanimous, have good intentions and are hard working, making sure they give their best to whatever they do. In almost every novel, there are two main groups each character belongs to : the villains and the victims, who ultimately become the heroes. In this particular novel, Harper Lee has made the majority of the white community, with exceptions, the Villains or the people that do the action, and the black community the victims or the people that suffer the action and in this case, the action is racism or prejudice.
