Discuss the portrayal of African-America characaters in the novel. Does Lee portray the black community realistically?Is the black community...

The black community in To Kill a
Mockingbird is portrayed as a separate community within Maycomb. Taking place not long
after the Civil War, in the South, memories of the Confederacy's ignoble defeat are fresh in the
minds of those who are still alive to tell the story, as well as those who keep the anger over
the defeat very much alive.

Blacks are considered to be beneath the
whites. Even Bob Ewell, who is an outcast within his white society, holds
himself with a sense of superiority over Tom Robinson, specifically, and all other blacks, in
general.

Ewell's ability to charge an innocent Tom Robinson of
raping his daughter Mayella is possible because many of the prejudiced residents of the community
believe it is possible: the accusation represents the true nature of their discrimination and
fear of blacks. Truth is not found in the voice who speaks it, but in the color of the skin of
the accuser and the accused.

One of the big mistakes Tom Robinson
makes in the story is to feel sorry for Mayella's lot in life. How could a lowly black man feel
sorry for his superior? This is, in fact, quite possibly the detail that seals his
fate.

Yes, suh. I felt
right sorryfor her, she seemed to try more'n the rest of
'em—"

"You felt sorry for
her, you felt sorry for her?" Mr. Gilmer seemed ready
to rise to  the ceiling.

The witness realized his mistake and
shifted uncomfortably.

We cannot say
for certain that Tom really had a chance at a not-guilty verdict, but as we learn later, there
was a good deal of argument among the jury members, so the decision was not an easy one. Based
upon what some members of good conscience saw happen in the courtroom, they felt compelled to
give Tom the benefit of the doubt. However, they were overruled.

The
one person who is black and has a different place within the community is Calpurnia. The bottom
line is that the children view their housekeeper through the lens of how Atticus sees her: she is
like a mother to them, and no different because of the color of her
skin.

The story seems to accurately depict the black community of
Maycomb, and of the South during the Great Depression. From Ewell's vicious lies, to the lynch
mob that shows up at the jail to forcibly take Tom while Atticus guards him, shows the extent to
which many members of the community view the blacks. (There are exceptions, like Atticus and Miss
Maudie.) Atticus takes some abuse (like Ewell spitting on him) for defending Tom, while for the
children, it is much harder, coming at the hands of some adults and a good many
children.

However, the bottom line in the story is the message
Atticus gives his children: to know a man you must walk in his skin, and Atticus does this, and
encourages his children to do the same.

He sees Tom as a man first:
the color of his skin is incidental. He is realisitic enough to know how the community at large
may see Tom, but Atticus' moral compass not only demands that he be fair-minded, but that he look
to a person's humanity before considering anything else, and it is how he lives his
life.