In A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines, readers really get the impression that the South is defined by one thing: race. Although modern Southerners know that the South is made up of and worth much more than its racial past, race defines many aspects of Southern society, including memory, sense of place, Southern taste, Southern voices, and expressions of power. Race relations in the South are greatly influenced by memory, and racial memory influences all other aspects of the South. As shown in A Lesson Before Dying, race relations had not changed dramatically in the years following slavery. Jefferson represents how most whites viewed blacks: poor, ignorant, simple, and unquestionably guilty. The whites did not consider him their equal; in fact, the white community of Bayonne, Louisiana, hardly saw Jefferson as a human being. Jefferson worked on a white plantation for low wages and represents the archetypal view of a black person during the slave period. By the late 1940s, Jefferson is hardly removed from the memory of Southern plantations and slavery, and is evidence of the power of the Southern imagination. Nearly ninety years after the end of slavery, life for Jefferson and those like him had not changed much. The fictional setting of A Lesson Before Dying, Bayonne, Louisiana, is based on a real Louisiana town and has a background of Cajun culture, which is an important part of the culture of Louisiana and the South as a whole. Gaines, however, does not delve into explaining Cajun culture and spends more time carefully describing the injustices of segregation. Readers also see in the novel that despite the Cajun culture that surrounds them and their immersion in it, the African American characters in the novel do not identify... middle of paper... and are doomed to failure. Racism shook Grant to the core and shook his beliefs in teaching, where he could express his power and act for change in the community. However, by helping Jefferson to be strong and express his power over his self-esteem, Grant regains confidence in his role as a teacher and the impact he can have on his community. Race shapes every part of the South because race relations, slavery, and the Civil War were what pushed the South to declare itself “other” in the first place. A Lesson Before Dying illustrates a time of poor race relations in the South and the impact racism had on all aspects of society. Although race relations in the South have continually improved since the 1940s, Southerners will always face the dichotomy between protecting Southern history and memory and fighting for racial equality and justice..