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The Oxford Academy, a CT boarding school campus, prides itself on fostering artistic creativity alongside academic excellence. Whether it’s painting, photography, filmmaking, or writing, our approach empowers students to express their individuality while teachers guide them through the creative process. The True Blue website (https://www.oxfordtrueblue.com/) showcases these artistic achievements, celebrating student works born from individual passion or creative competitions like our annual photo contest.
One such exemplary work is the following film “The Maycomb Story: Revisiting Where a Mockingbird Was Killed and Human Dignity Was on Trial”, written and directed by Kenneth K ’25 for Mr. Hayden’s English class. Using an imaginative interview style, it delves deeper into the classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird, demonstrating Kenneth’s profound understanding of Harper Lee’s story through a unique student perspective – the kind of project we love to see on campus.
This film was also a delightful interdepartmental collaboration, combining an English class assignment with videography expertise and first-time acting from our wonderful faculty members. It embodies Oxford’s commitment to nurturing students’ artistic expression across multiple disciplines.
For reference, here is the transcript:
My name is Charles Baker Harris, I go by Dill. I am a reporter and I’m working on an article about human dignity related to events of my childhood in the town of Maycomb, Alabama. In my childhood, I spent many summers here in Maycomb, when I met my two best friends, Jem and Scout, fifteen years ago. Their dat, Atticus, was the lawyer that was defending a black person unjustly accused of raping a white girl. His name was Tom Robinson, his trial was a big part of my childhood and still a deep topic on the value of human dignity and that is the reason why I will be interviewing people of Maycomb about their thoughts on the trial of Tom Robinson. A case that was an example of human dignity on one side and a lack of it on another.
There are many stories connected to this larger story, and as I traveled back to that town I tried to think about how to find the truth in all of them. The humid Alabama air clung to me like a memory as I stepped off the train. Maycomb’s dusty streets shimmer through a haze of nostalgia. Fifteen years had passed since Scout and I chased fireflies and clung to Boo Radley’s shadows. Now, a seasoned newspaper reporter, I was back to unearth a story far deeper than Mockingbird’s feathers: Human dignity is woven into the fabric of Maycomb’s people
Having the people of Maycomb reflect on the case of Tom Robinson from their own perspective was an experience that brought to life the idea of human dignity.
Interview with Miss Maudie Atkinson
Harris: Miss Maudie, thank you for allowing me to have this interview with you.
Atkinson: Of course Mr. Harris.
Harris: All right Miss Maudie, As well as you have been aware of many details about the community of Maycomb since we were younger, and that is the reason why I am interviewing you today. I would like to have your opinion on the case of Tom Robinson.
Atkinson: Oh Mr. Harris! Do you want me to talk about that very old unforgivable case of Mr. Robinson? Well, I will tell you my opinion about it. At first, when Mr. Ewell accused him of raping his daughter, we all assumed that he was just another black man doing wrong, and most assuredly would go to jail for that. When Atticus Finch took the case going against the common views of us in town, people started to wonder why that excellent lawyer was defending a man with all of his heart. At that time, I thought of Tim Robinson just like everybody else does, but he was maybe guilty of what he was, even more maybe guilty of what he was accused of. Now looking back, I think more differently about what had happened. I remember sitting in that courtroom back then, listening first to Maya Ewell’s testimony, then Tom Robinson’s testimony. I started to question myself about if that young humble and serviceable man was really guilty of what he was accused of. Mr. Ewell, not being the easiest person, lacking education, and a sense of good manners, gave an impression of just trying to cover mistakes in the life of an innocent young man. Mr. Finch may have lost Mr. Tom Robinson’s case, but that day, he won the hearts of all of the community, and he made a big step in the way the black community was facing justice back then.
Harris: Ms. Maudie, your answer was not less of what I could have thought about, Thank you so much for sharing this with me and for your time.
Atkinson: Thank You Mr. Harris.
Interview with Mayella Ewell:
Harris: Yeah Ms. Mayella, thank you for allowing me to sit with you here to talk about what happened 15 years ago, with the trial of Tom Robinson, and the death of your dad. And I didn’t get a chance to tell you this, but I’m really sorry for the loss of your dad.
Ewell: Thank You Mr. Harris
Harris: Ms. Mayella, how was the relationship with your father?
Ewell: My father is not really an easy person to live with. He used to get drunk and sometimes even out of control;. We had our ups and downs, but at the end of the day, he was still my father. You know Mr. Harris, sometimes it’s not much more than that.
Harris: And what about your relationship with your siblings?
Ewell: Well, our relationship was not the best. One, having a feather like ours, and a lack of stability used to make things very difficult for us. Despite all of that, I always cared for them, and watched over them. I used to do the best that I could.
Harris: Ms. Mayella, and before the trial, what kind of interaction did you have with Mr. Robinson?
Ewell: Mr Robinson used to work for my father, and sometimes I would ask him to come help me with small tasks around the house. He was helpful, you know. Mr. Harris, I regret all of the wrong that I did for Mr. Robinson and his family. I was just a young girl trying to defend my dad, without considering the impact of my choices. I really wish I had never had to do what I did.
Harris: Oh, Ms. Mayella… We have all made decisions that we regret now. There is a lesson that helps us be better people. Do not let your past mistakes define you.
Ewell: Thank you Mr. Harris
Harris: Ms. Mayella, thank you so much for this interview. Your answers were very profound and not less than what I was expecting.
Ewell: Thank you so much Mr. Harris. I’m so glad we were able to have this discussion because I wasn’t able to talk about this before, so I was able to really get my side of the story out there.
Interview with Sheriff Tate:
Harris: Sheriff Tate, I’m very thankful for the fact that you are taking time out of your busy schedule to let me interview you.
Tate: Of course Mr. Harris, it is part of my duty to be available for the people, especially for you Mr. Harris. You’ve always known you as a good kid, and you’re a respectable young man. Mr. Harris, let’s start.
Harris: Thank you Mr. Tate. Mr. Tate, 15 years ago, when the trial of Tom Robinson was here in the town of Maycomb, when you look back then, why don’t you talk about what happened?
Tate: As sheriff, I did my job. I put Mr. Robinson in custody so he could have a fair trial. That is all I could have done. You know Mr. Harris, I cannot be in control of everyone’s actions.
Harris: Sheriff, do you think what happened was really justice?
Tate: Mr. Harris, as close as we could get.
Interview with Calpurnia:
Harris: Mrs. Calpurnia, it is a pleasure having you here with me doing this interview.
Calpurnia: Mr. Harris, the pleasure is all mine. What a find young man you’ve grown into!
Harris: Mrs. Calpurnia, can you tell me a little bit about how it was like to be the maternal figure for Scout, Tom, and maybe I can say, for me? All three of us back then in the period of Tom Robinson trial.
Calpurnia: Oh boy, that time was a challenge, even for me. It wasn’t always easy to know what to tell you at that time, with everything that was going on. I was always trying to keep you far away from all of those things, but your curiosity as kids was beyond even my control.
Harris: And how is Atticus dealing with everything at that time, I mean the trial and Scout and Jim trying to understand their father’s decision?
Calpurnia: Well, Mr Finch taught Scout and Jim valuable life lessons during that period by telling them, and showing them that people are different, and in order to understand them, you must walk in their shoes, and see their – try to see the world at least from their perspective. Atticus also taught them about treating people equally regardless of their race and social status, and without paying too much attention to public opinion. More importantly, he shows them that you must keep your head up and stay strong when you’re doing something that you believe in.
Harris: I totally agree with that Mr. Calpurnia. I remember that as a kid back then, Scout, Jim, and I didn’t really understand how the world can be unequal and filled with injustice, but I think he taught us as a whole how the world works, and that we have to admit it in order to go through whatever comes to us and to improve the world.
Calpurnia: That’s right Mr. Harris. You kids, are lucky to have Mr. Finch. He is one of a kind.
Harris: Ms. Calpurnia, I can’t thank you enough for this interview. It made me travel in the past again.
Calpurnia: It’s a shared feeling Mr. Harris, and we’d be glad to have you for dinner before you leave town.
Harris: Thank you so much Ms. Calpurnia. Thank You
Interview with Atticus Finch:
Harris: You have been a lawyer for a long time. How does the Tom Robinson case fit into your career?
Finch: Uh, there is no other case that showed the problems with our legal system like the Ewell vs Robinson case.
Harris: What do you mean?
Finch: Justice is supposed to be blind right? That means justice, and our legal system, which is supposed to uphold justice, and it is supposed to judge guilt and innocence by evidence and facts. Decisions should be made considering real, tangible evidence – not by appearance or race. Too many people in that courtroom, they were just seeing, they were just judging with prejudice. They came in there with their minds made up. The evidence and the facts, it didn’t matter, all that could just be set aside in their mind. I hoped that I could help them, get them beyond their first thoughts, their prejudices, but I didn’t do that in the end, and Tom paid the price.
Harris: Were you surprised by the verdict?
Finch: No, no I wasn’t. Until Maycomb and our country face our racism, our prejudices, our lack of equality, we will never really be that country built on equality that we’re supposed to be. Tom’s case just reminded me, and hopefully others how much work we still have to do.
Harris: Do you think it maybe wasn’t worth it? I mean with the old state against you, and everything that you and your family went through. Did it ever occur to you to drop this case?
Finch: Yeah, yeah, I thought about that. I thought about giving up, but I could look at the facts and say that we’d lost before we even started. 100 years before that court case started, we lost that case, but it was worth the fight. I think until you can live with yourself and your own conscience, you can’t really live with others, and I had to do that first. I knew there was a likelihood of losing, but ultimately I believe that Tom deserved the fight, no matter what I thought about how difficult things would be for me and the kids, but then I thought about Tom and I thought about his family. Everybody counts or nobody counts, for any of us to have human dignity, we need to recognize it, and defend it for others. It was the right thing, but it had costs and it was hard. Well, we never would have made it though any of that without Calpurnia. She was the parent of my kids when I was fighting alongside Tom. She taught them more than I ever did about a lot of things. They could see what I was trying to fight against and improvements I was trying to make but from Calpurnia, they learned what was really right. They learned values. She helped give our home the warmth, the stability, the love, the morality that my kids needed and I know you saw that too Dill. You saw how she was a part of our family.
Harris: Yeah that’s true. I remember how much a part of the home Calpurnia owes, and how fondly Scout and Jim treated her. Thank you for taking the time to discuss all of this with me. I know it was a difficult experience and probably painful to relieve.
Finch: Yeah it is painful, and it breaks my heart every time thinking about Tom’s death, and him never finding justice, but I think we all learned a lot from this experience looking at you now working on this project about human dignity. That means that Tom’s legacy lives on and that the effort for better Maycomb and a better America continues. I am proud to be a very small part of that. We wouldn’t be here having this conversation if it wasn’t for Tom Robinsonson. Thank you so much for coming by and talking to me. This is a nice conversation. It is great to see you again and good luck with your other conversations around Maycomb.
Harris: Thank you Mr. Finch, it was great to see you again.
Finch: Take care.
Harris: Take care too!
Interview with Mr. Cunningham
Harris: Mr. Cunningham, thank you so much for making time for this interview, this means a lot to me.
Cunningham: Sure Mr. Harris, let’s dig into it.
Harris: Well Mr. Cunningham, during Tom Robinson’s trial, you supported Atticus when nobody was expecting you to do that. I would like to know the reason behind your support for Atticus, who was defending a black man accused of rapping a white woman.
Cunningham: At first I was behind Bob, because we all wanted to get rid of the man that raped his daughter, and we were determined to bring Tom Robinson to our form of justice just in case the judge and jury didn’t. I still remember that evening outside the courthouse. We saw it as our best opportunity to get the work done finding Robinson in the cell where he was waiting for trial. When we got there that evening, Mr. Finch was sitting there on the porch of the county jail. We were about to force him to leave and all of sudden you kids came out from nowhere and after Atticus’s daughter Miss Jean talked to me, she reminded how ungrateful I was to be towards Mr. Finch, and his children who had been nothing else but respectful, generous, and fair towards my family and I, and it was at that moment that I really reconsidered where my loyalty should be. Knowing Atticus, he must have been really convinced of the innocence of Robinson to firmly defend him the way he was doing.
Harris: I remember that night as if it was yesterday Mr. Cunningham. I would also like to know you opinion after hearing the Mr. Robinson was found guilty.
Cunningham: It was very unlikely for Robinson to win against Bob who had the support of almost all the powerful fellas in the town. At the time, Robinson’s win would have been unacceptable. Mr. Finch fought very hard for the justice of Robinson, but it wasn’t hard enough to resolve the social injustice and racial prejudices towards Tom. Unfortunately, his fate as a black person was already settled just when he put his fee\t in that courthouse, and even the judge couldn’t do anything about it. Atticus lost the trial and gained enemies that day, but he won the heart and deep respect of many.
Harris: Mr. Cunningham, this is the end of this interview. I really appreciate your very profound and not easy answers, and it was not less than what I was expecting. Thank you very much Mr. Cunningham.
Cunningham: You are very welcome Mr. Harris.
Interview with Tom Robinson
Harris: Mr. Robinson, thank you for taking time for this interview, I really appreciate you taking time for this.
Robinson: It is your pressure Mr. Harris.
Harris: I didn’t know you personally, but I know that you were a remarkable person. I’m really sorry for your loss and I really appreciate you taking time to talk about your father and how it happened. I know that it isn’t easy. Thank you so much for doing this.
Robinson: Thank you Mr. Harris. It is about time the people knew about my father’s story.
Harris: Mr. Robinson, can you please talk about who your father was, and what you think about what happened in the trial and his death?
Robinson: My father was a caring man. He was a hardworking, humble man who cared for his family. He cared for the people in his community, and for him being accused like that and being killed cold blooded, I have no words for it.
Harris: But Mr. Robinson, it is said that your father was killed for trying to run away?
Robinson: No, my father, I doubt it.
Harris: What do you any of Maycomb school learned from what happened back then?
Robinson: My father didn’t have any hope in the justice system when he was in the courtroom. He knew his fate was already sealed before the verdict. Seeing men like Mr. Finch fighting for our father gives me hope of having a fair justice system one day, and seeing Mr. Ewell dying mysteriously helped me believe we have justice somewhere after losing my father.
Harris: You know Mr. Robinson, even after the sentence, Mr. Finch was hoping for a second chance. You know he did what he could.
Robinson: Yes, but deep down, there wasn’t any hope. Only knew there was no hope.
Interview with Scout and Boo
Scout: Hey Mr. Radley, we’re doing this interview set up by Dill so that we could talk about you and your connection with us.
Radley: Sure Miss Finch, Mr. Harris told me about the interview.
Scout: Then Mr. Radley, I would like you to tell me what it was like being isolated in your house for so long.
Radley: So Miss. Finch, it was not like being isolated. After what I experienced, I did not want to go out and interact with others. I thought that if I stayed in my house without ever going outside, nothing bad will happen to me, and I would also do no wrong, and it was quite like that until you, Jim, and Dill started to be very curious about knowing me. That made my life a little bit different. I was also curious about you and I wanted to connect with you in one way or another.
Scout: Yes Mr. Radley, I remember that. I remember that someone was putting some treasures in the hole in that tree by our house hoping that someone would see them and take them, and that person was you.
Radley: Yes Miss Finch, observing you was fun for me, and made my life interesting. For you, I was like a ghost but for me, we were playing a fun mystery game.
Scout: How did you feel when Jim and I finally met you and talked in person with you?
Radley: I was pleased to finally meet you. I was looking forward to it, since I was watching you for a very long time. The circumstances in which we first met were not the greatest, but I was glad I was there at that time.
Scout: Do you have any regrets or wishes for how things could have been?
Radley: I can see how maybe I would have been more involved, more of a part of the community. I had a hard time getting over the fear from my past experiences with being out in the town. I’ve gotten over a lot of that but back then I was controlled by that fear. It took seeing a threat to you and Jim to have the courage to go out and try to make a difference in the community instead of just hiding from it. I felt I had to protect you and Jim and even if I didn’t love how I had to do it, sometimes you have to stand up and fight for those you care about. I did what I had to do, and I don’t regret it.
Scout: Yes Boo, you saved us, I will never forget it.
Radley: Thanks.
If we define human dignity as the equal respect for and valuing of all humanity, these conversations added to this understanding. Because ultimately being able to support the dignity of others comes with trying to understand and sympathize with their backgrounds and their perspective. If we don’t try and understand each other, then we can’t support each other’s dignity.
For example, in talking to Mr. Cunningham fifteen years later, I was able to see that he understood Tom Robinson and Bob Ewell in a way he didn’t back then and he was even able to see how he made mistakes. I feel like we were able to learn about a community’s struggle with human dignity by giving everyone an opportunity to openly express their thoughts about what really happened to Tom Robinson, expressing their gratitude towards those who fought for justice and equality, and others by expressing their regrets, wishing that they would’ve done things differently, nevertheless hoping to not make the same mistake again.
Leaving Maycomb this time was different. The pain of Tom’s absence remained, but it was tinged with a glimmer of hope. Human dignity, I realized, was not a destination, but a journey. And maybe, just maybe, Maycomb was taking a few tentative steps down that path. And as I boarded the train, Maycomb’s whispers echoing in my heart, I knew I wasn’t just leaving a town, but carrying a story that transcended time and place, a story of how, even in the darkest corners, the light of human dignity could never be truly extinguished.
