Harper Lee argues in his novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, that the moral obligations of a court of law are set aside in favor of the law that resides in the minds of the men. She describes her characters in a way that hints at their inner thoughts. Through practical repetition, the citizens of Maycomb enforce the existence of the social inequality that is white supremacy. Whether by following suit or completely ignoring the problem, it is the people alone who allow injustices to occur. In a public call for an era of tolerance, Harper Lee attacks Southern racism through Scout Finch's account of her father's failure to correct a corrupt legal system dominated by prejudiced citizens seeking to uphold the law by their own hands. Tom Robinson, the man falsely accused of raping poor white woman Mayella Ewell instills a sense of abject horror in most of the citizens of Maycomb. Most of Robinson's irrational fear is simply that: fear. To the people of Maycomb, Tom is like a snake in the grass, waiting for the right moment to strike and hurt as many white people as possible. Emancipation in the 19th century, still fresh in the minds of many Southerners, had already threatened to socially push the black man ahead of the white man with its continued momentum. Ewell therefore relishes the opportunity to slander Robinson, free himself from abusive accusations against his daughter, and condemn a black man with the solidarity racism of his peers. The accusation of being naturally malicious, ignorant, and evil is ironically how the black man appears to the vast majority of Maycomb's population. Most of those who describe Tom in this way would fit this description, just waiting to remove the blacks and prolo...... middle of paper .......---. "Atticus Finch --- Good and Evil." Atticus Finch --- Right and Wrong, Alabama Law Review, Vol. 45 (1993-1994): 473. Racism in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. Ed. Candice Mancini. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2008. 67-76. Print.Johnson, Claudia Durst. “The law of the land is not the same as the moral law.” The secret courts of men's hearts: code and law in To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee. (1991). Literary companion series. Ed. Terry O'Neill. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, Incorporated, 2000. 71-83. Print. Halpern, Iris. "Rape, Incest, and Harper Lee's 'To Kill a Mockingbird': On Alabama's Legal Construction of Gender and Sexuality in the Context of Racial Subordination." Columbia Journal on Gender and the Law 18.3 (2009): 743+. Gale Opposing viewpoints in context. Internet. November 11, 2011. Lee, Harper. To kill a mockingbird. New York, NY: Harper, 2010. Print.