Remembering Harper Lee’s Impact on the South

Harper Lee, the elusive author whose “To Kill a Mockingbird” became an enduring best-seller and classic film with its child’s-eye view of racial injustice in a small Southern town, has died. She was 89.

To Kill A Mockingbird

HarperCollins spokeswoman Tina Andreadis confirmed the author’s death to The Associated Press on Friday.

For most of her life, Lee divided her time between New York City, where she wrote the novel in the 1950s, and her hometown of Monroeville, which inspired the book’s fictional Maycomb.

“To Kill a Mockingbird,” published in 1960, is the story of a girl nicknamed Scout growing up in a Depression-era Southern town. A black man has been wrongly accused of raping a white woman, and Scout’s father, the resolute lawyer Atticus Finch, defends him despite threats and the scorn of many.

Bill Ferris is the Joel R. Williamson Eminent Professor of History and Senior Associate Director of the Center for Study of the American South. Ferris spoke with WCHL’s Blake Hodge to reflect on the passing of Lee.

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One on One: Atticus Finch and I. Beverly Lake

What explains the staying power of Harper Lee’s book, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” and the film that starred Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch? For some it is its poignant story of Jean Louise or Scout whose love and respect for her father Atticus and his example gave her the courage to face the dangers and […]

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