Tom Robinson Quotes

The other
answers have covered this topic well, but I can provide a few more quotes about Tom Robinson,
justice, and equality.

First, after the trial, Mr. Underwood, the Maycomb
newspaper editor, speaks out angrily about the injustice done to Tom Robinson in a newspaper
editorial in which he states, in 's summation of his ideas,

Mr. Underwood didnt talk about miscarriages of justice, he was writing so children
could understand. Mr. Underwood simply figured it was a sin to kill cripples, be they standing,
sitting, or escaping. He likened Toms death to the senseless slaughter of songbirds by hunters
and children.

Mr. Underwood calls out the murder of Tom
Robinson as a slaughter of an innocent mana sin.

The hypocrisy and injustice
of the white townspeople supporting putting Tom Robinson in his "place" while
criticizing Hitler's treatment of the Jews comes clear in Scout's concerns about her teacher,
Miss Gates. Scout says to ,

Well, coming out of the
courthouse that night Miss Gates wasshe was goin€˜ down the steps in front of us, you musta not
seen hershe was talking with Miss Stephanie Crawford. I heard her say its time somebody taught
em [the blacks] a lesson, they were gettin€˜ way above themselves, an the next thing they think
they can do is marry us. Jem, how can you hate Hitler so bad an€˜ then turn around and be ugly
about folks right at home

In his final argument defending
Robinson,appeals to the jury to consider the notions of equality on which the United States was
founded:

We know all men are not created equal in the
sense some people would have us believesome people are smarter than others, some people have
more opportunity because theyre born with it, some men make more money than others, some ladies
make better cakes than otherssome people are born gifted beyond the normal scope of most men.
But there is one way in this country in which all men are created equalthere is one human
institution that makes a pauper the equal of a Rockefeller, the stupid man the equal of an
Einstein, and the ignorant man the equal of any college president. That institution, gentlemen,
is a court.

Atticus says in the above quote that equality
before the law is the foundation of justice in the United States, and he asks the jury to
respect this ideal.