'To Kill a Mockingbird' 50 years later, right on race

For generations of American school kids, it has been assigned reading and a timeless novel that has long provoked discussions in the classroom on topics like moral courage, justice and racism in America.

Nelle Harper Lee's, To Kill a Mockingbird was first published 50 years ago, and this summer it is being celebrated around the country as more than a book, but rather a shared part of our nation's history.

It was a work of fiction that reflected the simmering reality of the times, mirroring a national consciousness, conflict and shame over race.

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Lee's father, Amasa Coleman Lee, was a lawyer himself, and like the hero of the novel, he defended black men in court during the Jim Crow laws era.

At the time of the book's release, the South was entirely segregated -- blacks and whites couldn't even park their cars in the same parking lot.

Nevertheless, the book won Lee a 1960 Pulitzer Prize, but she never wrote again.

Instead, Lee retired in the small town of Monroeville, Alabama, where she grew up and the fictional setting of the book.