A Lesson Before Dying takes place in rural Louisiana in the late 1940s; it is the racially segregated deep South of the recent past. This was a time and place where "Blacks" (people of African ancestry) and "whites" (people of European ancestry) were kept apart by the culture, traditions, customs, and laws of the states. It was unusual, and in some cases illegal for "white" people and "Black" people to interact socially.

This is not during slavery, but more than 80 years after the abolition of slavery in 1865 (see timeline). This situation occurred because about ten years after the Civil War the Federal Government stopped enforcing the Civil Rights provisions of the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments of the Constitution that granted civil rights to "Blacks." With the end to "reconstruction" (the occupation of the South by federal troops to enforce these laws) many of the white supremacist behaviors, traditions and attitudes of slavery were (re-)written into the "Jim Crow" laws of the South.

A Lesson Before Dying does not, however, directly address this history. Instead, Gaines gives us a story of living as an individual and community under these circumstances. All of the characters ("white" and "Black") are changed, formed or deformed by these rules, traditions and expectations of this peculiar culture. The racist rules of the "Jim Crow" or white supremacist South are not the center of the action in A Lesson Before Dying. Rather, Gaines's novel explores the psyches of people living under these conditions and shows how the status-quo can be overcome.

African-American Timeline
1600                     1700           1800                                                                                   1900                   2000       2008   African American Presidential Candidate		1619—Approximately 20 Blacks from a Dutch slaver are purchased as indentured workers for the English settlement of Jamestown. These are the first Africans in the English North American colonies .                                           1776—A passage condemning the slave trade is removed from the Declaration of Independence.   1861-1865—The Civil War leads to the Abolition of Slavery . 1877—The Compromise of 1877 ends Reconstruction and initiates "Jim Crow" resegregation.   1896—The U.S. Supreme Court rules that Southern segregation laws and practices (Jim Crow) are legal, articulating the "separate but equal" doctrine.                           1964—The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is passed by Congress banning discrimination in all public accommodations and by employers.                                 2006—The Jena 6 prosecuted for a schoolyard fight over a schoolyard noose.