Why does Atticus' view of race differ than the people living in Maycomb in to kill a mockingbird?

people had a distorted view of atticus because public sentiment in maycomb county led towards the public norm of racism and prejudice. Because atticus was defending a black man for rape in an environment like that he was misunderstood as going against the other white folk in the town. Atticus was an individual in that he did not care about what the public thought of him, he defended Tom Robinson to the best of his ability because it was the right thing to do, even if the other residents of Maycomb country resented him for it