a peaceful life, even if others speak unkindly to her. He explains:

"You might hear some ugly talk about [my involvement with Tom Robinson's courtcase], but do one thing for me if you will: you just hold your head high and keep those fists down. No matter what anybody says to you, don't let 'em get your goat. Try fighting with your head for a change . . . " 

Scout often turns to violence as a method of dealing with her quarrels and disagreements. Rather than using her words as a weapon, she uses her hands. Atticus wants her to return to using words to express what she believe in. After this conversation, where Atticus explains the importance of this court case and instructs Scout to use words instead of violence, Scout asks him if he will win the case. He responds bluntly:

"No, honey."

"Then why--"

"Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win."

In this passage, "licked" means defeated or conquered. Atticus is not merely concerned with winning this court case. He realizes that he has a great difficulty, racial prejudice, that is hindering his defense of Tom Robinson. Tom has been accused by a white family of raping a white woman (Mayella Ewell); because he is opposed by white-skinned people, it is highly unlikely that he can win the court case. 

Nonetheless, it is still important for Atticus to defend Tom Robinson because he believes he is innocent. Throughout the text, the symbol of a mockingbird is used to express the idea of innocence. Tom Robinson is considered to be a mockingbird, or an innocent being, that Atticus believes deserves to be defended. Not only does Atticus try to live a morally upright life but he also tries to train his children to live virtuously. He teaches them to defend the innocent, such as when he teaches his children that they can shoot blue jays and other mean birds, but that they should never shoot innocent song birds (ie: mockingbirds).

This theme, teaching morality, is seen many times in the novel. Many of these lessons are discussed when Scout climbs onto Atticus's lap as he is reading in the evenings. Scout sometimes climbs into Atticus's lap when she wants comfort, when she wants to read with him, or when she wants to talk to him about life. In chapter 26, Atticus tells Scout that she is getting "so big now, [that he'd] just have to hold part of her" (331). This is a sign that Scout is growing into a wise young adult woman; the moral lessons that she's been learning from Atticus are helping her (as well as Jem and even Dill) to grow up.

Atticus wants Scout to understand that just because something is difficult doesn't mean you should not do it if it is the right thing to do.

Atticus tells Scout that there is no way he is going to win the case when she gets into a fight with Cecil Jacobs after the boy insulted him.  Scout doesn’t understand why people are so upset with her father.  He explains to her that he is defending Tom Robinson.  Tom was accused of raping a white woman.  He is a black man.  To the people of Maycomb, that makes him guilty.

Atticus feels that just because he was assigned the Robinson case does not mean he should not put his best efforts into it.  He wants to try, even though he knows he will not win.  It is a matter of personal pride to him.

Scout tells Atticus that he sounds like Cousin Ike Finch, who likes to rehash the Civil War.

“It’s different this time,” he said. “This time we aren’t fighting the Yankees, we’re fighting our friends. But remember this, no matter how bitter things get, they’re still our friends and this is still our home.” (Ch. 9) 

Atticus knows that the people of Maycomb will not want to confront the racial realities of the case, but he feels that it is his job to show them.  It is common in Maycomb to assume that a black person is guilty, no matter what.  No one in Maycomb is willing to consider otherwise.  Atticus wants to give them a chance. 

When Mrs. Dubose dies, Atticus uses her battle with her morphine addiction as an example of moral courage.  He wants his children to remember that sometimes you have to do things that are very difficult, and perhaps even impossible.  The description he gives of Mrs. Dubose fighting her addiction could just as easily apply to his taking the Tom Robinson case. 

I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. (Ch. 11)

Atticus realizes that it will be very hard to win Tom Robinson's case, because of Maycomb's deeply ingrained racism.  However, he wants to try, because it is the right thing to do for Tom Robinson and for Maycomb. He does not get Tom Robinson acquitted, but he does get the jury to deliberate longer than any other Maycomb jury has.  That shows progress.

In Chapter 9 of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus's reference to being "licked a hundred years before" is a reference to slavery and pre-Civil War days.

Prior to Atticus's reference, Scout had just been verbally attacked by Cecil Jacobs, who demanded to know why her "daddy defended niggers." Cecil's comment reflects the deep-seated racist views of the South. Feeling confused because she thinks Cecil has just pointed out that her father is doing a bad thing, Scout asks her father if he is defending a Negro, and Atticus's response is that all lawyers defend Negroes.

Atticus further continues to explain that he is defending Tom Robinson, who is "a member of Calpurnia's church," and his family members are known by Calpurnia to be "clean-living folks." When Scout next asks why he is defending Robinson, Atticus replies that he "couldn't hold up [his] head in town" if he didn't. Atticus's speech to Scout and responses to her questions indicate that Atticus is defending Robinson because he believes in Robinson's innocence and disbelieves in the town's racist views. Hence, by the time Atticus argues that, though he knows they'll lose the case, just because they "were licked a hundred years before" the case started, doesn't mean they shouldn't try to win, we know Atticus is referring to the racist views that gave birth to slavery and started the Civil War.

The novel is set during President Roosevelt's days of the New Deal, during the Great Depression, which was in the 1930s. Therefore, a 100 years prior to when the book is set would be the 1830s, days when slavery still reigned in the South and 30 years prior to the start of the Civil War. It was racism that gave birth to slavery and racism that kept African Americans from receiving the justice and freedom due to them as American citizens. Racism also gave birth to the Civil War because the South felt that maintaining an economy that relied on slave labor and their racist views were worthy of fighting to the death for. Though the South lost the war, Atticus is well aware that the fight to end racism is a losing battle, a battle in which those who disbelieved in racism "were licked," meaning defeated, and had been licked for the past hundred years. Hence, all in all, Atticus is using his reference to slavery and pre-Civil War days to show that those who are just, merciful, and non-racist have been being defeated by those who are racist for a very long time.

However, Scout misinterprets his meaning. She relates what he is saying to Cousin Ike Finch, Maycomb's only living Confederate veteran, who still complains of the South having lost to the Yankees its authority to uphold racist views through slavery. Atticus is too respectful a person to tell Scout that Cousin Ike's views are racist; he instead only tells her that, this time, the fight against racism is a fight between friends.

Atticus is referring to slavery and prejudice in general. For the last hundred years at the time of the novel, African-Americans had been considered less than human. The majority of people in the story are prejudiced against them. Atticus is fighting a battle to clear a black man's name in spite of a white woman's testimony, and recognizes this as a losing battle. However, because he believes that all men are created equal, he wants to try to win for the sake of Tom Robinson, for the sake of equality, for the sake of all people's rights in this world. Society has already "licked" (or "beaten") Atticus and his defendant in the sense that most people are already convinced that Tom is in the wrong simply because of the color of his skin, but Atticus continues to fight for the rights of a black man because his personal code of ethics demands nothing less than this.

This is an example of an allusion; an historical allusion, to be precise. Atticus uses a well-known colloquialism "licked," meaning defeated, to refer to the South's defeat in the Civil War. The context of the allusion is a discussion with Scout concerning the forthcoming trial of Tom Robinson. Atticus knows full well that Tom doesn't stand a chance of being acquitted, given the deep-seated racial prejudice that exists in Southern society. But that doesn't mean that he's not going to try and give it his very best shot. He has a moral and legal duty to provide Tom with the very best defense possible, and that's precisely what he intends to do. In using this allusion, Atticus is drawing an analogy between himself and the Confederate forces during the Civil War, in that both have been defeated before the battle's even begun, but still need to fight with everything they've got.

Scout asks Atticus if they are going to win the case. Atticus responds honestly that he does not think they will win. Scout asks why he would even take the case. This is when Atticus says: 

Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win. 

Scout says this sounds like the thinking of Cousin Ike Finch who said he would fight for the Confederacy just the same even though they lost the war. This reference to the Civil War is significant to Atticus's previous statement. The novel takes place in the 1930s. One hundred years prior would have been the 1830s, about 30 years before the South was "licked" in the Civil War. 

The South fought to uphold slavery and it was a losing battle but something the South was going to fight anyway. Atticus notes that the case of Tom Robinson is different. Clearly, the cause is more righteous with Tom Robinson than trying to preserve slavery. Even though he knows he won't win the case, he still intends to do his best. There is the notion that it may be many more years (perhaps not 100) before a black man can get a fair trial in the South. But that is no reason not to try. Atticus explains why he must take the case: 

The main one is, if I didn’t I couldn’t hold up my head in town, I couldn’t represent this county in the legislature, I couldn’t even tell you or Jem not to do something again. 

This statement is relevant for Atticus because he tries to be consistent with his words and actions. He tries to be the same fair and reasonable man in his home as he is in the courtroom and on the street. So, he has to take the case because it's the right thing to do. This decision to take a controversial case will affect the children as well. They will be mocked at school and they will eventually face danger because of it. Even though Atticus loses the trial, Bob Ewell will continue to hold a grudge simply because Atticus defended Tom. So, the simple act of taking the case will affect all of the main characters and will culminate in the climax of the novel.