And the Atticus Finch is not even THE Atticus Finch. People are up in arms not because they can't see Atticus Finch as racist but they can't see Gregory Peck as racist. He's Atticus Finch in the minds of most people.
I haven't read "Go Set A Watchman" yet; pre-ordered weeks ago and I expect it any day. But I've read "To Kill a Mockingbird" dozens of times and I can't think of a single line in that book that gives insight into Atticus Finch's racial views. He's an intelligent man, a refined man. A gentleman and a good father. And a lawyer who believes that justice could be colorblind. There is nothing on segregation or integration. Nothing that indicates opposition to Jim Crow or social mores of the time. In other words nothing that indicates that the Atticus Finch of the 1930's could not be the Atticus Finch of twenty years later.
Atticus Finch I and II certainly could be the same character. Consider some of our founding fathers who fully believed that all men were created equal and who disparaged slavery, and yet they were not ready at that time to abolish slavery. It is kind of ironic that liberals who normally see everything as shades of gray, can’t see this fictional character in that way.