Political and historical context

• Historically, A Lesson Before Dying can be placed between World War II and the beginning of the civil rights movement. In the novel, it is clearly noticeable that both the black and white populations are equally frustrated and dissatisfied with their respective social conditions
• Black Americans, in particular, feel a lack of identity and struggle with not belonging anywhere. In Gaines' work, the black population, unlike their enslaved ancestors, undertakes to stand up against segregation and social injustice due to racism. However, without apparent success, the white police force nips the budding self-assertion of the black citizens in the bud by abusing their power
• In the southern states of the 1940s in America, inhumane Jim Crow laws, racial segregation, as well as the Ku Klux Klan and various other organizations prevail, among other things
• In such an environment, the black population struggles daily. Black Americans desperately fight to be accepted as Americans even though they were not even entitled to citizenship at the time

Catholicism

• Especially from the musical point of view, white and black Catholicism differ significantly from each other. While a white Catholic congregation is far more moderate and stiff during a service, black churchgoers show full physical commitment, when it comes to singing the hymns and dancing to the sung sounds. Overall, the black congregation seems to be more detached and passionate about the songs of praise to their Lord
• Particularly in black communities, the Catholic Church also provided a gathering place to discuss social, economic, and political issues. In this novel, the integration of the church into everyday life is also described, for example, in that the plantation church also serves as a school
• After the Civil War, the Catholic Church saw enormous potential in the growth of new church members as over four million African Americans emancipated themselves. However, because the training of black priests was widely frowned upon, especially in the Southern states, many untrained priests, such as the Reverend Mose Ambrose in "A Lesson Before Dying," took up the ministry
• In the mid-20th century, there were 400,000 black Catholics and 100 black Catholic priests in the United States