Who is Tom Robinson accused of attacking in To Kill a Mockingbird?

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Book cover for To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, featuring a silhouette of a child under a tree and a large moon, with the title in script and — To Kill a Mockingbird This book cover is one of many given to Harper Lee's classic work *To Kill a Mockingbird* (1960). The novel won a Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and the next year was made into an Academy Award-winning film.

In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Tom Robinson is falsely accused of raping Mayella Ewell, a white woman.12

Despite evidence presented by his lawyer, Atticus Finch, suggesting that Mayella was actually attacked by her own father, Bob Ewell, Tom is wrongfully convicted. This tragic injustice highlights the deep-seated racial prejudice within the town of Maycomb.12