Or was the author wishing for someone like this?
Please search Google.com for "Atticus Finch".
A topmost link is to the Wikipedia article, which in turn cites 27 references and 7 bibliograpy entries.
Author Harper Lee modeled the fictional Atticus Finch after her real-life father, Amasa Coleman Lee.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atticus_Finch
So no, the deep south was not so purely evil or so steeped in some nefariously evil racist legacy that there could not really be people like Amasa Coleman Lee. Sorry to burst the bubble.
Hello M:
There sure were.. I'm proud to have known some of 'em.. Nahhh... They're not famous.
excn
Yes, I'm fairly certain there were. As a matter of fact, there is a recently published book titled "My Father & Atticus Finch", and there are many similarities between Foster Beck and Harper Lee's character. Unfortunately, the real lawyer paid for the rest of his life, for his rigorous defense of a black man in the 1930's.
Sure.
There are people of integrity and heroes everywhere in every single town. USA.
Chased and hunted along with dem' der negroids dey done chose to help
