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A Lesson Before Dying

Imagine living under the thumb of a legal system that failed to provide equality of rights, based on the color of one’s skin. This was especially true for black’s living in the South during the early 20th century. With little federal oversight and even less concern for the civil rights of minorities, the story of Jefferson in Earnest Gaines masterpiece “A Lesson Before Dying”, accurately illustrates a black man’s struggle for a fair legal system. But to understand the justice of today, one must first examine the injustices of the past. The history of so called “Jim Crow” laws, American legal reformers, and reform law give us an insight into the history and achievements of those who dedicated their life’s work to the attainment of a just legal process.

So than, who was Jim Crow anyway? Jim Crow was a generic name for any white man in black makeup, imitating black culture or music. However, when most people think of Jim Crow they think of laws, which excluded blacks from public transport and facilities, juries, jobs, and neighborhoods. Gaines effectively portrays this dichotomy throughout the novel with poignant examples of this type of discrimination even though the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitut

. . .
The NAACP or National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is the oldest, largest and strongest civil rights organization in the United States. However, after 1877, and the election of Republican Rutherford B. Plessy, who was seven-eights white and one-eighth black, therefore black, sit in the white-only railroad coach. As strong-willed as they were intelligent they paved the way for the creation of agencies such as the NAACP. Jim Crow signs were placed above water fountains, door entrances and exits, and in front of public facilities. However, perhaps the most remarkable fact remains that this tumultuous social reform occurred through non-violent means. In other cases, there were no black facilities -- no Colored public restroom, no public beach, no place to sit or eat. There were separate hospitals for blacks and whites, separate prisons, separate public and private schools, separate churches, separate cemeteries, separate public restrooms, and separate public accommodations. In recent years many reformers have worked to change the law in favor of equal rights for all people. Plessy gave Jim Crow states a legal way to ignore their constitutional obligations to their black citizens. Or judge Irvin Mollison, who, with his appointment on November 3, 1945 to the United States Customs Court, became the first African-American federal judge with life tenure.

In 1890, Louisiana passed the "Separate Car Law," which purported to aid passenger comfort by creating "equal but separate" cars for blacks and whites. People like Macon Bolling Allen, who in 1844 became the first black lawyer.

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