To Kill a Mockingbird (1962, 129 minutes)
(Hosted by the Common Reading Program)

Monroeville, Ala., is the home town of celebrated author Harper Lee and the basis for the fictional town of Maycomb in her classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird. It is also the location where Walter McMillian was unjustly accused, tried for murder, incarcerated, and sentenced to death for killing a white woman. Bryan Stevenson, the author of Just Mercy, took on the case postconviction to exonerate McMillian, by proving that witnesses had lied on the stand and the prosecution had illegally suppressed exculpatory evidence. McMillian’s conviction was overturned and he was released in March 2003 after spending six years on death row for a crime he did not commit.

Stevenson is attributed with saying that while Monroeville proudly celebrates its connection to the novel and film of To Kill a Mockingbird, the town remained blind to contemporary racial bias and injustices in its administration of justice. “We start this year’s series with a screening of this classic film to provide the context and story that this year’s common reading will challenge and extend,” says Karen Weathermon, co-director of the Common Reading. Common Reading Stamp available.