Racism has been around for hundreds of years and is still a problem in today's society, although it may seem subtle. However, in the 1940’s racism was prominent everywhere. Around this time, slavery was abolished but your level of class was still based off the color of your skin. This underlying theme in the novel, A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines shows how racism is woven within cultural groups. Gaines used so many examples of racism in the novel to prove a point that most problems in the novel come from racism, and also for the readers to see how it relates in today's society. Throughout the novel there is always a sense of white supremacy. At Jefferson's trial, the jury is only white men. This is important because it shows the bias of the court. Before the defense attorney started Jefferson's …show more content…
This shows that because the room was full of white people, and he was a little black boy, the jury, like grant, had already made up their minds before the trial began. “12 white men say a black man must die, set a date and time without consulting one black person” This quote demonstrates that for that only the white men decided jefferson's fate. Another example is when Dr. Joseph is visiting the Grants school. Once a year, he the white schools twice.. He went to the white schools to see their progression in learning, if they needed new items, etc. In contrast he came to the black school, and instead of checking their learning progression and seeing what supplies they needed, he inspected the children. “...And besides looking at their hands he began inspecting teeth…. at the university, I had read about slave masters who had done the same when buying new slaves, and I had read about cattle, doing it when they inspected horses.” This shows how the school system, run by white people, had no interest in the black children's learning and how their success was not important to