These were the people the town trusted, especially Atticus Finch, with the exception of Dolphus Raymond. It seemed as if Judge Taylor asked him to defend Tom Robinson because the town trusted him to and as Jem later points out in the novel Atticus “…spends his time doin’ things that wouldn’t get done if nobody did ‘em” (116). Dolphus Raymond was the town scandal, always "drinkin' out of a sack” (160). He lived a scandalous life, "way down near the county line" where he resided with a "colored woman and all sorts of mixed chillun" (161-62). It was the opinion of the townspeople that these children must be "real sad" because they belonged nowhere, being neither black nor white. Interestingly, while Lee offered no contradiction to the opinion that Mayella has sinned gravely by kissing a black man, Dolphus' character is portrayed as far more sympathetic (Baecker).
The white workers of Maycomb included the Cunninghams, the Littles, Mr. Aavery, Ms. Caroline, Mr. Deas, Mr. Gilmer, Sheriff Tate, and Mr. Underwood. The Cunninghams “…never took anything they can’t pay back…” and they were described as “…country folk farmers…” (Lee 20-21). The Littles were represented through Little Chuck Little, one of Scout’s classmates who stood up to Burris Ewell in defense of Ms. Caroline. Mr. Aavery was a boarder at the house across from Mrs. Dubose’s. Mr. Deas was Tom and Helen Robinson’s employer. The state attorney representing the Ewells was Mr. Gilmer. Maycomb’s sheriff who accompanied Atticus to kill the mad dog and who delivered the news about Bob Ewell was Sheriff Heck Tate. Mr. Braxton Bragg Underwood was the owner, editor, and printer of The Maycomb Tribune. Although he openly disliked blacks, he defended Tom’s right to a fair trial (Symkowski).
The “white trash” of Maycomb was the Ewells. The Ewells knew that they were the lowest of the low amongst the whites in Maycomb. They had no money, no education, and no breeding (Baecker). The single thing that elevated them at any level in the community was the fact that they were white. “ All the little man on the witness stand had that made him any better than his nearest neighbors was, that if scrubbed with lye soap in very hot water, his skin was white” (Lee 171). Like most people in similar situations, Bob and Mayella wanted to better their station in life (Symkowski). However, Bob was unwilling to put forth the effort necessary to change his family’s lot and Mayella did not have the resources to change her own life. The Ewells lived "behind the town garbage dump in what was once a Negro cabin" (Lee 170). Bob Ewell drank up all the welfare money and was allowed to hunt out of season so his children did not go hungry. Mr. Ewell's incestuous relationship with Mayella, the driving force behind her desire to make loving contact with someone else, even if that person is a black man, is mentioned only in passing in the novel. The incestuous relationship of a white trash man with his white trash daughter is a part of the novel often glossed over by scholars who probably find it unremarkable anyway, as if to say, what else can be expected from people living so close to Negroes (Baecker).
The caste of Maycomb included the Negroes of the town even though some were educated and morally and economically above the Ewells. The Negroes mentioned the most in the novel were Tom Robinson, Calphurnia, her son Zeebo, and Reverend Sykes. Calphurnia, the Finches’ housekeeper, grew up at Finch’s Landing and moved with Atticus to Maycomb. She was the closest thing to a mother that Jem and Scout had. Calphurnia was also one of the few Negroes who could read and write. Zeebo was the town garbage collector and he’s one of the four people who can read at the First Purchase African M.E. Church. Reverend Sykes was the pastor at the First Purchase African M.E. Church. “This notion that education makes racism "disappear" is a common myth” (Baecker). Racism was commonly ascribed to poor white trash as though those of the middle and upper classes (who possess more education) have nothing to do with it. The most prominent Negro figure in the novel was Tom Robinson. The trial of Tom Robinson is a significant part of the text, even if the trial itself occupies only fifteen percent of the novel (Symkowski). What may be more significant than the number of pages devoted to the actual trial may be the way in which Lee has constructed the novel so as to compress the issue of race into a tightly constrained portion of the book, bounded on either side by tales of unfairness and prejudice.
The injustice that an all-white jury had invoked upon Tom Robinson and then his being shot seventeen times was the extent of the racism in the post-Depression era. The more sophisticated white people in Maycomb at least tried to pretend that their prejudices did not run so deep, but such was not the case with Bob Ewell. Tom only recognized Mayella as a person in need and he paid dreadfully. Today’s equivalent of Tom Robinson is the ‘welfare recipient’ (Baecker). Mention ‘welfare recipient’ to most people and the image which will spring to their minds is that of the "welfare queen": overweight, black, female, uneducated, slovenly, and surrounded by a passel of equally dirty, ignorant children. A society is made of its eloquent people and every person should be cared for equivalently.
