‘Scout’ Defends Harper Lee’s ‘Watchman’ Over Race Controversy

Mary Badham, Scout in the 1962 film ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’, defends author Harper Lee’s ‘Go Set A Watchman’.

Mary Badham, who played Scout in the 1962 film adaptation of Gregory Peck-starrer To Kill A Mockingbird, has defended author Harper Lee’s latest novel Go Set A Watchman in 2012. (Photo: Reuters)

Actress Mary Badham, who played Scout in the 1962 film adaptation of Gregory Peck-starrer To Kill A Mockingbird, has defended author Harper Lee’s latest novel Go Set a Watchman.

Badham, who read from Mockingbird and Watchman at an event in New York in honour of Watchman’s release, told Harper Lee: American Masters’ director Mary Murphy that the passages in the new book that reveal Atticus Finch to be racist are a product of the era in which they were written – according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Many fans are troubled by the revelations about Atticus, who is one of the most loved literary heroes as he defends an innocent black man, accused of raping a white girl, in a racially-charged South Alabama town of 1930s. What you have to do is you have to put your mindset in that time period, and you have to understand what we lived through. When you read the book, you’ll get it. There is so much much more to (the storyline than just a few lines).
– Mary Badham, actress who played Scout

A ‘Mockingbird’ History

Badham believes that like Mockingbird, Watchman – which Lee wrote and then set aside almost 60 years ago – too should be taught in schools “especially now with what we’ve got going on in this country (race tensions).”

“The root of all evil is ignorance. Education is the key to freedom,” she added.

The actress, who was just 10 when the movie released, won an Oscar-nomination for her portrayal of the sassy, tomboyish Scout, who is the voice of Mockingbird.

Phillip Alford played Scout’s older brother Jem while John Megna played Dill in the 1962 classic.