In To Kill a Mockingbird, what does Atticus find wrong, what right, with the idea that all men are created equal?

In Harper Lee's To Kill a
Mockingbird, I believe that the idea of "all men are created equal" is
something that Atticus struggles with.

Atticus feels that
all people are equal morally and under the law, and that skin color and one's heritage
should have no bearing upon the value of the
individual.

However, Atticus struggles with his community's
perceptions of equality. Atticus' morality will not accept how his peers treat those who
are supposed to be "equal."

In Maycomb, the town in which
they live, some people consider themselves more equal than others. The whites of wealth
and property consider themselves superior to those whites of the lower classes, and
don't consider blacks to be human beings at
all.

Ironically, Bob Ewell believes, even though other
whites consider him "white trash," that he is far superior to Tom Robinson and his
"kind" because Ewell has white skin.

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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.

As Atticus tries to
see the individual rather than, for example, skin color or social status, he is
disappointed with those tied to the past (the Civil War) and societal expectations
(upper vs. lower classes), and their use of these things to judge the value of others.
Equality is not subjective, nor are there different kinds . Atticus would see the
concept of equality open to all people.