Abstract:
In this dissertation I argue that works of literature which explore historical moments should be considered as valuable historical artefacts and sources, on the basis that such literature can reveal more about the lived experience of reality than a factual history. Specifically, I assert that Harper Lee’s 1960 novel To Kill a Mockingbird is a historical source for the Long Civil Rights Movement. This “long” Civil Rights Movement more accurately reveals the larger set of goals that African Americans sought to achieve during their struggle for freedom than the timeline of the popular Civil Rights Movement (1954-1968). The popular Civil Rights Movement diminishes the history of grassroots organising and protest that precedes its short timeline, and fails to acknowledge the extent of racial discrimination and white violence that occurred in the early 1900s and continues today. In depicting the reality of racial inequality and growing protest in the Depression-era South, Lee's novel is evidence of a Long Civil Rights Movement.
