Mr. Underwood is the owner, editor, and printer of The Maycomb Tribune, the town's newspaper. He works and lives in the Tribune office, which is located across from the courthouse, and spends his days at his linotype. He constantly refreshes himself with his ever-present gallon jug of cherry wine.

When a mob of men approaches the courthouse and demands that Atticus leave (he is sitting outside, protecting Tom Robinson), Mr. Underwood trains a double-barreled shotgun on the mob. Though Atticus doesn't realize it until the mob has dispersed, Mr. Underwood has him covered during the entire episode. However, Mr. Underwood, whose first name is Braxton Bragg (after a Confederate general), won't allow a black person to go near him. Despite Mr. Underwood's apparent racism, he writes an editorial in his paper after Tom Robinson is convicted of raping Mayella Ewell. He writes that it's a sin to kill people who are crippled or weak, much as it's a sin to shoot a songbird. Mr. Underwood is clearly committed to his own vision of justice and believes that the verdict in the Tom Robinson case is unjust. 

Braxton Bragg Underwood is the owner and editor of The Maycomb Tribune and is a close friend of Atticus Finch. Scout mentions that Mr. Underwood's days were spent on the linotype and that he always had a jug of cherry wine present. She also comments that Mr. Underwood rarely left his office because people brought him the news. In Chapter 15, Atticus is warned about the Old Sarum bunch and a few community members fear that they will attempt to cause havoc before the trial. As predicted, the Old Sarum bunch attempts to lynch Tom Robinson. Fortunately, Mr. Underwood witnesses the entire situation from his office window and is holding a double-barrel shotgun to cover Atticus the entire time. Following Tom Robinson's trial, Scout mentions that Mr. Underwood wrote an editorial that compared Tom's verdict to the "senseless slaughter of songbirds" (Lee 147). Although Mr. Underwood is a racist, he has a conscience and believes in justice. He disagrees with the jury's decision because he thinks that it is wrong to harm crippled, helpless individuals. Mr. Underwood's editorial gives additional insight into his moral character and depicts him as an empathetic individual.

What do we find out about Mr. Underwood in To Kill a Mockingbird?  

Mr. Underwood is the editor of the local rag, The Maycomb Tribune. A fairly insignificant man, he pretty much epitomizes the Average Joe in this small Southern town. A virulent racist and white supremacist, like just about everyone else in Maycomb, he nonetheless realizes that a grotesque miscarriage of justice has taken place with the conviction of Tom Robinson.

What Underwood lacks in racial sensitivity he partially makes up for in terms of empathy. Despite his racism, Underwood can see beyond Tom's race just long enough for him to realize that the man is one of life's mockingbirds, and as such, he should not be harmed. It's interesting that his empathy in this regard is similar to that of his good friend, Atticus Finch, despite their radically different outlooks on race.

This would appear to suggest that it's just as wrong to take a white racist at face value as it is to make a judgement about an African-American male charged with raping a white woman. In both cases, there's a lot more going on than meets the eye. It would be far too easy to write off Mr. Underwood as just another one-dimensional white Southern racist. But thanks to his relationship to Atticus, we can see that that's not the case, and that though he's one of the book's minor characters, his added dimensions make him no less interesting for that.

What do we find out about Mr. Underwood in To Kill a Mockingbird?  

Braxton Bragg Underwood is one of the more interesting of the minor characters of To Kill a Mockingbird. Underwood was named--"in a fey fit of humor" by his father--for one of the most inept and hated of all the Confederate generals of the Civil War, Braxton Bragg; Scout mentions that rumor had it that Underwood had been determined to "live it down." The owner and editor of The Maycomb Tribune, Underwood was an "intense, profane little man" who apparently was quite a drinker, since Atticus commented that "naming people after Confederate generals made slow steady drinkers." Atticus also said that Underwood "despises Negroes," yet, on the night that the lynch mob came to take Tom Robinson from the jail, he stood guard over Atticus with his shotgun from the window above the newspaper office. Despite his feelings about the black man, he vehemently lamented Tom's death, likening it to the "senseless slaughter of songbirds." Scout decided that Underwood did not approve of the killing of cripples, be they black or white.