August 13 , 1950.
Chapter 1:- The Verdict of Tom Robinson.
Looking back on the Trial of Tom Robinson, I can understand why people couldn't accept how I was so much at ease shifting between black and white societies especially with the social divide being as it as "segregated" as it was then, but I have begun to wonder how different the fate of Tom Robinson might have been if he had the chance to have a retrial now - with things as different as they are. .
At the same time, when faced with such questions as to "how could I degrade myself in such a manner as to defend man who was "clearly guilty" I used to think that in many ways that they missed the point. For really for me it truly was as easy for me to move between the "black" and "white worlds, as it was for me to move between my home and the Cunningham's - or me, the colour of a mans skin didn't mean he deserved any less a show of justice for in the end the law is law regardless. But then I am a hypocrite and that is one of the reasons I kept trying to teach the children and perhaps one of the reasons I took Tom Robinson's case in the first place. .
Although I loved her and trusted her as I would one of my family, she still served us and couldn't eat with us at the dinning room, rather, ate in the kitchen. However, I would still speak to her as though she were anyone else, with the same respect as I would give anyone else, though that was as far as I would go, and hopefully saving her the embarrassment of being treated differently then most of the other black people at the same time. I guess in my own way, I tried to make up for that "lack of justice according to human equality" by representing Tom Robinson, yes because I felt that I was a Lawyer and public defender that it was legally the right thing to do, but also because I believed it was morally the right thing to do and that was all that matter to me - that it was indeed the "right thing to do" for to me he was innocent and that was all that mattered! .
