Mockingbird by Charles J. Shields Page A

and Frank Ezell defended by A. C. Lee on charge of murdering a white man; both are hanged and mutilated: partial basis of To Kill a Mockingbird.
    1920: Edwin Coleman Lee born: Jem in To Kill a Mockingbird.
    1920 Alfred R. Boulware, Jr., age 9 (model for Boo Radley), listed on the 1920 federal census; father, Alfred R. Boulware, age 47, merchant of a general store; mother, Annie, age 45; sisters Mary A., age 18, and Sally C., age 15.
    1920–1930: A. C. Lee on the Monroeville city council.
    1923: Monroeville gets electricity.
    1923: Arch Persons and Lillie Mae Faulk marry at the Faulks’ home.
    1924: Truman (Persons) Capote born in New Orleans: Dill in To Kill a Mockingbird.
    1926: Nelle Harper Lee born: Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird.
    1927–1938: A. C. Lee serves in State House of Representatives.
    1928: Truman’s parents divorce; the four-year-old moves to Monroeville, where he lives until 1933.
    1929: Alice graduates from high school.
    1929–1947: A. C. Lee is editor and partner of the Monroe Journal . Alice Lee becomes associate partner and editor, along with two other partners.
    1931: The first brick residence is built in Monroeville.
    1931: New Monroeville Methodist Episcopal Church opens, where the Lee family worships.
    1932: Monroeville’s only library opens in the upstairs of Jenny Faulk’s millinery store.
    1933: Truman moves to New York to be with his mother and stepfather.
    1933: Walter Lett arrested near Monroeville on charge of raping Naomi Lowery, a white woman: basis of To Kill a Mockingbird trial.
    1934: Walter Lett pleads not guilty to rape; tried and found guilty. Jury recommends death by electrocution; judge sentences him to death.
    1934 summer: Monroe Journal , “Mad Dog Warning Issued”; basis of rabid-dog scene in To Kill a Mockingbird .
    1935: Truman’s name changed to Truman Garcia Capote.
    1936: New public high school for whites only completed in Monroeville.
    1937: Alice goes to Birmingham, Alabama, to work for IRS; at night attends the Birmingham School of Law.
    1940: Population of Monroeville fewer than 2,500.
    1940 January: The Faulks’ house burns down: basis of Miss Maudie’s fire in To Kill a Mockingbird.
    1942: Alfred “Son” Boulware dies at home at age 42; “Boo” Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird.
    1943 August: Alice Lee admitted to the Alabama bar; joins father’s law firm in Monroeville in January 1944.
    1944: Nelle graduates from high school; starts at Huntingdon College in Montgomery that summer.
    1945: Capote returns to Monroeville to begin Other Voices, Other Rooms : Nelle Lee is model for Idabel Thompkins.
    1945: Nelle Lee enrolls at University of Alabama for law school.
    1946: Monroeville Methodist Episcopal Church supports full-time missionary and family in Southern Rhodesia: basis for the “missionary ladies” in Go Set a Watchman and To Kill a Mockingbird.
    1946: Lee writes the column “Caustic Comment” for University of Alabama campus newspaper.
    1947: Sara Ann McCall marries Edwin Coleman Lee.
    1946–1947: Nelle Lee edits Rammer Jammer , campus humor magazine.
    1948: Random House publishes Capote’s first novel, Other Voices, Other Rooms.
    1948: Lee drops out of the University of Alabama, returns home.
    1949: Nelle leaves Monroeville for New York City.
    1950s: Union High School built in Monroeville for black students; Monroe County schools not integrated until late 1960s.
    1951: Frances Cunningham Finch dies in Selma, Alabama.
    1951: Edwin Coleman Lee dies at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery.
    1952: Alice Lee and A.C. move into a brick home, six blocks west of their former home, where they will spend the rest of their lives.
    1954: Brown v. Board of Education is decided by the U.S. Supreme Court; finds school segregation unconstitutional.
    1955: Rosa Parks refuses to give up her bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, leading to a bus boycott by African-Americans.
    1956: Rev. Whatley