Probably the best example of Tom Robinson's symbolic comparison to the mockingbird comes from the pen of newspaper editor B. B. Underwood. Underwood is not a friend of the black man; in fact, according to Atticus, he "despises Negroes. Won't have one near him." But Underwood is a fair man, and he has already supported Atticus (and Tom) when he stood guard silently over them at the jail on the night that the prospective lynch mob paid a visit. Even Underwood can see the injustice of the jury verdict and Boo's death, and he pulls no punches in his printed reaction. In his editorial concerning Tom's death in the Maycomb Tribune, Underwood compares Tom's death to the

... senseless slaughter of songbirds by hunters and children...  (Chapter 25)