ALPENA — The Martin Luther King, Jr. Committee is inviting the community to a discussion of the book or movie “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee via Zoom at 7 p.m. on Wednesday.

Sandra Pilgrim-Lewis of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services will lead the discussion. To request the link for the discussion, email abelovedcommunity.alpena@gmail.com.

Harper Lee wrote “To Kill a Mockingbird” during a very tense time racially in her home state of Alabama. The South was still segregated, forcing Black people to use separate facilities apart from those used by whites, in almost every aspect of society.

The Civil Rights Movement began to pick up steam when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955. Following her bold defiance, Martin Luther King, Jr. became the leader of the movement, and the issue began to gain serious national attention.

Clearly, a prime subject of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” namely the injustice of racism and inequality in the American South, was highly relevant at the time of its publication. The novel was praised for its sensitive treatment of a child’s awakening to racism and prejudice in the American South.