In Chapter 17 of To Kill a Mockingbird, how does Reverend Sykes make it possible for the children to see the trial? Was he right to do so?

It is in Chapter 16 that Reverend Sykes invites the children to sit with him upstairs in the "Colored balcony" because all the seats are taken downstairs where the white people sit. He asks them if they think it would be all right if they came upstairs with him. "Gosh yes," Jem said, very happy to be invited. Once they were upstairs, Scout remembers that "Four Negroes rose and gave us their front-row seats." Reverend Sykes was kind to the children, and they knew and liked him. Atticus was much loved by the African-American community in Maycomb. At the conclusion of the trial, it is Reverend Sykes who tells the children to stand up in respect for their father as he left the courtroom.