re: Check in for To Kill a Mockingbird play at Saenger

I read "Go Set A Watchman" and there were a lot of Atticus Finch's even in the seventies. Those men were actually the more tolerant folks. They were sympathetic of the plight of blacks and wanted to help them. Jimmy Carter in his younger days is a good example. They felt they should help the blacks and did. What they never really accepted was that the blacks of those days could do things whites were doing. Atticus told Scout something about the blacks not being ready to run the town or something like that. They came by those opinions honestly--blacks in those days were uneducated and most in rural areas had very little reading and writing abilities.

Were the attitudes of Atticus racist attitudes? certainly by today's standards they were. But we know Atticus defended Tom and few if any more would.

My observations are that the racism of my youth is different from the racism of today. Back then many believed blacks incapable of a lot of things that required education. They didn't think a black could be a quarterback for example. Today I think the racism is based more on cultural differences and most of it is learned from observation and experience IMHO.