Jem and Scout learned, sadly, that juries do not always
vote their conscience. Jem talks later about abolishing juries, but also wonders why
honest people like Miss Maudie doesn't serve on them. They discover after the trial that
the lone holdout was a Cunningham--one of the men who had come to lynch Tom only nights
before. It made them realize that men can change virtually overnight. They also saw
that not everyone in the town was against Tom and Atticus. The editorial by B. B.
Underwood, who, according to Atticus, "despises Negroes," strongly defended Tom (just as
he had defended Tom and Atticus from the lynch mob at the jail). They also came to
understand, through Miss Maudie's little speech, that Atticus was a special man who "was
born to do our unpleasant jobs for us." Maudie also explained that the trial had been "a
baby step" toward justice for the black man.
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