How is the setting of Maycomb significant in To Kill a Mockingbird?

The setting of Maycomb, Alabama (during the
1930s) propels the conflict that will send Tom Robinson to his death, forceandto realize that
the world isn't as innocent as they imagine early in the novel, and engulfs Bob Ewell in enough
hatred towardthat he attempts to murder Jem and Scout.

This lazy little
Southern town is sandwiched between two historical movements. The Emancipation Proclamation has
granted freedom to all slaves in America, yet the work of the Civil Rights Era is still decades
away. Thus, Maycomb exists on the surface as a picturesque setting, calmly passing the days in
peaceful serenity:

People moved slowly then. They ambled
across the square, shuffled in and out of the stores around it, took their time about
everything. A day was twenty-four hours long but seemed longer. There was no hurry, for there
was nowhere to go, nothing to buy, and no money to buy it with...

Yet the reality is that this is a deeply divided Southern town. Calpurnia goes to an
all-black church, and not everyone welcomes Scout and Jem when they visit there. Mr. Dolphus
Raymond, a white man who lives with a black woman, pretends to be constantly drunk so that
people can blame his choices on alcohol instead of facing that he prefers to live in the black
community.

When Atticus defends Tom to the best of his abilities, most of
his white neighbors judge him harshly. Maycomb is a Southern town deeply entrenched in racist
thinking, and most people (with a few notable exceptions) are content to continue with these
divisions. The way things have always been is the way they envision things will always be. After
losing the trial, Atticus comments that the racism behind the verdict is "just as much
Maycomb County as missionary teas" ().

The racism in this town has
created both men like Bob Ewell, who spews enough hatred to falsely accuse and condemn an
innocent man to his death--and a white jury who is willing to deliver a verdict that is
impossible based on evidence but is instead based solely on the color of a man's skin. Twelve
white men cannot openly agree with a black man's testimony over any white man, even one as
despicable as Bob Ewell.

Maycomb is conflict-laden because of the era in
which it exists. Through men like Atticus and the willingness of others, like Mr. Underwood and
Mr. Cunningham, to open themselves up to reconsidering their hateful traditions, Maycomb also
shows the promise of hope on the horizon.