Before I left town on Saturday morning, I had the pleasure of chatting with George Thomas Jones, a journalist and Monroeville resident who has known Harper Lee since she was a school girl.
Mr. Jones discussed with me race relations in Monroeville from the 1930s through today. He recounted what he knew from articles in the Monroe Journal about the trial of Walter Lett, the 1933 court case upon which the Tom Robinson trial is thought to be based. We talked about the total segregation that "wasn't right...wasn't fair...but that's the way it was" in Monroeville for many decades.
We also talked about how the Civil Rights Movement touched Monroeville, and --scary-- how the Ku Klux Klan operated in Monroeville right through the 1980s. To respect the rights and privacy of Mr. Thomas and the folks in the stories he shared with me, I won't publish them here, but be sure to talk with me about them in person!
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