Why is this quote important? Lula stopped, but she said, "You ain't got no business bringin' white chillun here—they got their church, we got...

In Chapter 12, Calpurnia takes Jem and Scout to First Purchase African M. E. Church for Sunday service. As they enter the church, Lula, one of the members of the congregation, approaches Calpurnia and asks her why she brought Jem and Scout to church. Lula mentions that Calpurnia has no business bringing white children into a black church. Calpurnia informs Lula that the children are her company and says, "It's the same God, ain't it?" (Lee 158) Jem feels awkward and tells Cal that she should take them home because they aren't "wanted" in her church. Zeebo, Calpurnia's son, walks up to the children to greet them and tells Jem not to worry about Lula. Zeebo says that Lula is just contentious because Reverend Sykes threatened to "church her." The rest of the congregation is happy to meet the children and treat Jem and Scout with kindness and hospitality.

Lula's negative comment to Cal about bringing white children to their African American church is important because it illustrates the resentment towards white community members in segregated Maycomb County. The setting of the novel To Kill a Mockingbird takes place in 1930's Alabama. During this period, Jim Crow laws were enforced throughout the South that segregated the white and black communities. White people worshipped at an exclusively white church, and black people had a separate church of their own. Lula is commenting that the white children should go to their "white-only church" because race segregates the community. This scene depicts the prejudiced tensions from certain individuals in the African American community. Throughout the novel, white people are portrayed as the only individuals who support segregation and contempt for the opposite race. Lula's character shows the audience that there are members of the black community who share prejudice against white people.