A Lesson Before Dying By Zachary Turner

This is the story of two arfican american men who are very different but both face the same problems like oppression in the time after The Great Depression. Grant Wiggins is a teacher who is in love with a married woman. He believes that the only way to escape racism is to leave the town of Lousiana where he grew up but has very bad memories of. Grant is very smart and carring and this is why he is asked by his aunt Tante Lou and her friend Miss Emma to spend time with Miss Emma's godson Jefferson. Jefferson is also a african american man who has struggled with racism, but unlike Grant this struggle will eventually cost him his life. Jefferson was in the wrong place at the wrong time and was sentenced to death for the murder of a liquor store owner and two other men. At Jefferson's trial his lawyer defends him by saying that he was no smarter than a hog and a hog couldn't plot a crime. Jefferson is sentenced to death but he takes the hog comment to heart. His godmother Miss Emma does too and this is why she makes Grant speak with her godson before his death so he can "die a man." Grant who is a very selfish person is nervous to speak with Jefferson because he doesn't want to get close to someone who is going to die. Grant's aunt forces him to visit Jefferson and by the third visit Grant is making progress with him. Grant has grown as a person and grown very close to Jefferson over the months awaiting his execution. When the day of the execution arrives Grant makes his class at school kneel until he gets word from the courthouse that the execution is complete.

I give this book 2 out of 5 stomps.