Still cogitating on the “Atticus is a racist” media slant. It’s a rather simplistic view. I got more that child Scout had imagined Atticus as the perfect, godlike person, and adult Scout had to reconcile that view with his real-life flaws. And that Atticus, while having personal prejudices about race saw himself as the “watchman” of those who shared his racism, but lacked his sense of moral duty not to act on it.

One comment I read on a thread at kos pretty much describes how I feel about it.

White gentlemen of that generation “took care” of their blacks. If a black guy didn’t suck up to a white guy with some local influence, he was in serious danger of being picked up for vagrancy and sent to a work gang. Those gents were used to being yassuhed and nossuhed in their every encounter with black men (I got the same treatment as a teen). It was common for them to show up in court to help out “their” blacks…. like Atticus.

After the civil rights movement, when they lost that deference, it blew their minds, the world was suddenly all wrong. All that cheap, or free, labor and deference disappeared and they were bitter at the change. They had seen themselves as wise, kind, generous patriarchs, like Atticus, and the ingratitude from these inferior people made them bitter.

Yeah, both books are about the same Atticus. Glad we got to see the whole man