?.And so a quiet, respectable, humble Negro who had the unmitigated temerity tofeel sorry? for a white woman has had to put his word against two white people's.The witnesses for the state.have presented themselves to you gentleman, to this court, in the cynical confidence that their testimony would not be doubted, confident that you gentlemen will go along with them on the assumption - the evil assumption - that all Negroes lie, that all Negroes are basically immoral human beings, and that all Negro men are not to be trusted around our woman, an assumption one associates with minds of their caliber?.
Atticus believes Tom is innocent of the dreadful crime of which he is accused and is unbiased by the fact that he is black. All of the above prove without fail that Atticus Finch is an extremely good and noble man; one can not be a hero without his principles.
Determination shows in all that Atticus Finch does, it seems, but it is most obvious when he is dealing with Tom Robinson's trial. First of all, on the night when the Cunninghams show up at the jail where Tom sleeps, Atticus is positively immovable. No measures can be taken for him to step aside, and there is absolutely no way that they can push past him. During the trial itself, Atticus is extremely firm with all witnesses, including his client, and he is insistent that they give straight and thorough answers. The reason for this is that he is intent upon finding out the truth, because he does not want the jury to be fed biased and irrelevant information. This leads to the last point, which is that Mr. Finch is extremely resolved to see to it that Tom Robinson's trial is free of prejudice and racism. The following quote from the courtroom clearly shows his determination in this matter:.But there is one way in this country in which all men are created equal- there is one human institution that makes a pauper the equal of a Rockefeller, the stupid man the equal of an Einstein, and the ignorant man the equal of any college president.
