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Racism In Ernest Gaines A Lesson Before Dying

683 Words3 Pages

The elimination of Racism, The “dream” that was deferred Throughout A Lesson Before Dying, Ernest Gaines shows that men naturally judge a fellow man by their appearance rather than the “content of their character.” It was within Martin Luther King Jr.’s “dream” that judgement based on color will become obsolescent. Martin Luther King's “dream” sadly still remains far from complete, although certain barriers have been broken, people still continuously judge a book by its cover, never taking the time to read the full story, and because of this racism still exists. [this thesis will work] Martin Luther king's dream has been left for the most part unfinished. The original dream came about during the civil rights period of american history, its hope was to create equality between majority and minorities, namely Blacks and Whites [topic sentence]. Martin Luther King stressed that silence about things that matter to you is the beginning of the end. if you as an individual don't stand up for what you believe in nothing will change. Martin Luther King stood up and …show more content…

Jefferson was at the wrong place at the wrong time, and because of the color of his skin he will suffer the ultimate price, death by electrocution [topic sentence]. Jefferson was placed in jail and sentenced to death not for the crime he was convicted of, but for a crime equal to murder in the eyes of the Whites, a crime dished out by god himself at birth making a certain ethnicity lower than man, the crime of being born a Black man in the pre civil rights south put jefferson in prison and convicted him of murder. Luckily this unwritten “law” has for the most part vanished, but because men constantly see the law as a painting, and not in black in white, innocent minorities are placed in prison everyday with little to no evidence, and because of this Martin Luther King’s “dream” will forever remain

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The trial itself was unjust. From the fact that the jury did not have at least one of Jefferson’s peers, the judge and the jury was an act of injustice in its own right. Jefferson was convicted and found guilty the moment he stepped in the courtroom before even a word was muttered, because the color of his skin. The judge and jury never were truly listening to Jefferson’s case, never hearing the wrong time and the wrong place ,but instead a negro being in the same place as a dead white man. A Lesson Before Dying shows how injustice acts are recognized and having to face the responsibility of making a change.

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