When novelist Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird was published in 1960, she had no idea it would take America by storm.
Racial segregation was still in effect throughout the Southern states at the time, and civil rights movements were only starting to gain traction. Though some backlash was expected due to the political climate in the Deep South, Lee’s story about racial injustice still received critical acclaim. It won a Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and was later made into an Oscar-winning film.
However, many ardent fans of the book are not aware that Harper Lee actually wrote two novels about racism in the South. Her other book, Go Set a Watchman, was released in 2015. It tells the story of Jean Louise “Scout” Finch 20 years after the events of To Kill a Mockingbird.
In an interview, Lee’s friend Wayne Flynt praised Mockingbird for its interesting take on the corruption of the courts, the church, and other important institutions viewed through the innocence lens of childhood.
When Mockingbird was published in July of 1960, several major events that defined the civil rights movement had not yet taken place. The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing that killed four girls did not happen until three years later in September of 1963, and the Bloody Sunday events during the Selma to Montgomery marches for voting rights took place on March 7, 1965. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech months after Gregory Peck won an Oscar in 1963 for his role as Atticus Finch.
Upon Mockingbird’s publication, there were concerns about how the book risked alienating many people. Though The Mobile Press-Register hailed it for its “wonderfully absorbing story,” they also expressed concern that it would be met with criticism in the Deep South.
The Register also praised the way the book portrayed its small town characters, but chose not to predict whether the novel would sell many copies. In the end, the book would go on to sell more than 40 million copies worldwide and has been translated into more than 40 different languages.
Journalists in Alabama were also quick to praise Lee’s coming-of-age story. The Birmingham News called it “down-to-earth” and “believable,” and said that Harper Lee deserved a place up front among America’s writers.
Aside from journalists in her home state of Alabama, Harper Lee also earned the recognition of reviewers nationwide. Richard Sullivan of The Chicago Sunday Tribune called Mockingbird a novel of “such rare excellence” and of “strong contemporary national significance,” adding that it was a story “admirably done,” calling it “honorable” and “engrossing.”
Time magazine lauded the novel in a review published in August of 1960, calling it an “awakening to good and evil.” They also praised Lee’s prose and her snippets of little girl logic and Southern life.
Over in San Francisco, George McMichael of The San Francisco Chronicle said that despite its melodramatic moments, Mockingbird was a “moving plea for tolerance.” He singled out the way Lee painted a picture of the adult world and a region laden with tragedy through the eyes of a child.
Despite the novel’s success, Lee chose to gradually pull away from the public eye. She gave her last public interview with Roy Newquist from the New York radio station WQXR in 1964. This was the same year that President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act which outlawed discrimination based on religion, sex, race, and nationality.
In the interview, Lee saw herself as a chronicler of middle-class southern life in a small town, saying that there was something decent to be said for it.
Lee led a reclusive life in the years that followed, continuing to do so all the way until her death on February 19, 2016. Prior to her death, she had been placed on assisted living in Monroeville, Alabama following a stroke in 2007 that left her nearly deaf and blind. Her sister Alice, who had been her protector, passed away in 2014.
Wayne Flynt, a retired history professor at Auburn University and a longtime friend of Lee, was left in charge of dealing with various press matters in relation to the novel. In 2011, he accepted Lee’s induction into the Fellowship of Southern Writers. He visited Lee at least once a month when she was still alive, and gave the eulogy at her funeral.
Flynt still had not met Lee at the time of Mockingbird’s publication. However, the novel’s message resonated with him and his experiences at the time. The church he attended did not admit African-Americans, and he was so devastated by the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing that he swore to never return to Alabama.
Despite his earlier decision to never step foot in Alabama again, it was Lee’s novel that drew him back to the state. He read the novel in 1963 and returned to Alabama in August of 1965, the same month that the Voting Rights Act was signed by President Johnson. Flynt has been in Alabama ever since, and he credits Lee for it.
Unlike many people at the time of the novel’s publication, however, some members of the black community weren’t quick to pick copies up off the shelves.
In a documentary for the PBS series American Masters, titled Harper Lee: Hey, Boo, Monroeville, resident Mary Tucker said that although she read the book as soon as it was released, not a lot of black people did so. Civil rights leader Andrew Young added that black people were already well aware of the harshness of segregation, and that there was already too much horror going on around them at the time for them to absorb more.
Flynt admitted that just like many others at the time, he thought Mockingbird was going to be about race. He eventually realized that it actually transcended race. He even asked Lee the same question that was argued over by civil rights leaders and columnists throughout the years that followed the book’s release: What was Mockingbird really about?
Flynt recalled that when he asked Lee about it, she threw the question back at him. After much thought, he could only say: “It’s about power,” to which she replied: “Of course.”