Explain what "one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience" means in To Kill a Mockingbird.

Atticus means that he believes that he should help Tom Robinson and he will not let anyone tell him differently.

Atticus’s children are tired of people insulting him for defending Tom Robinson.  Scout got in fights with her classmate and cousin, and Jem destroyed Mrs. Dubose’s flowers for it.  They think that perhaps Atticus is the one in the wrong.  He explains to them why he must take it.

This case, Tom Robinson’s case, is...

Atticus means that he believes that he should help Tom Robinson and he will not let anyone tell him differently.

Atticus’s children are tired of people insulting him for defending Tom Robinson.  Scout got in fights with her classmate and cousin, and Jem destroyed Mrs. Dubose’s flowers for it.  They think that perhaps Atticus is the one in the wrong.  He explains to them why he must take it.

This case, Tom Robinson’s case, is something that goes to the essence of a man’s conscience—Scout, I couldn’t go to church and worship God if I didn’t try to help that man.”

“Atticus, you must be wrong…”

“How’s that?”

“Well, most folks seem to think they’re right and you’re wrong…” (Ch. 11)

Atticus tells his children that he will follow his own conscience because he believes that he is doing the right thing in defending Tom Robinson.  Atticus was appointed by Judge Taylor, but he also believes in what he is doing.  Tom Robinson deserves a good defense, black or white.

In his closing arguments during the trial, Atticus explains that the justice system is supposed to be colorblind.  The rest of society might be racist, but the courtroom is supposed to exist in a vacuum of facts.  In practice, this does not always work out, but Atticus reminds the jury of it.

“But there is one way in this country in which all men are created equal—there is one human institution that makes a pauper the equal of a Rockefeller, the stupid man the equal of an Einstein, and the ignorant man the equal of any college president. That institution, gentlemen, is a court….” (Ch. 20)

The jury does convict Tom Robinson after all of that, but Atticus wins a victory in that the jury actually deliberates.  This means that he got through the thick layer of racism to make them think about what they were doing and question it.  The jury convicted Tom Robinson that time, but maybe next time they wouldn’t.  Each man should be ruled by his own conscience, not social norms.