The lesson

?A Lesson Before Dying…now that my friend is a good book. In fact, it is one of my favorite books. It’s a poignant tale set just after the Great Depression in the poor Bayou region that revolves around Jefferson; a young black boy who finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time during a period when it could be argued that there was no right place or time for his kind.  To be more specific, Jefferson and two friends entered a white-owned liquor store; an argument ensued with said owner and it quickly escalated into a gunfight. When it was over…3 people were dead…the only one standing was Jefferson.   

Although he had no gun, fired no shots and his innocence was obvious, Jefferson was charged with the crime. His attorney put up a “fight” saying that his client was no smarter than a hog and incapable of a crime of this sort. The jury concurred…but Jefferson was still sentenced to death. He accepted his death sentence but sadder yet was the fact that Jefferson accepted being compared to a hog. He started acting like one, thinking like one and in the process drifted into a dark, lonely place. 

His godmother became resigned to the fact that her godson would soon be executed, wanted to make sure Jefferson left this life proper; not as a hog. But in order to do so, he had to be taught something that she couldn’t teach. She couldn’t teach it because she had never lived it so she enlisted the help of Grant Wiggins the young black schoolteacher to teach Jefferson one last lesson before dying: that lesson…how to be a man…

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All over America today, stories like this one play out; some literally, some figuratively because too many young black boys are lost and just like Jefferson, they believe themselves to be no better than a hog. They worship rappers and music challenging them to be, “about that life”…only to find out that they only have one life to live and the life those rappers speak of, the one those black boys so blindly follow…isn’t really “about” anything. 

They desecrate their bodies with piercings and tattoos…and when they show up for the interview…no one will hire them. No one will hire them and since they chose to be “about that life” education was never a priority so as a result, they find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. But if they had a man, if they had a Grant Wiggins, maybe just maybe, those wrong places and times would somehow, some kind of way become right…

Friend, the next time you see “Jefferson” don’t just shake your head when you see him sagging…remind him that he’s better than that. Don’t act deaf when you hear vile words spewing from “Jefferson’s” mouth…instead, encourage him with yours. Somehow, some kind of way: get through…to…him…She, though she is strong and brave, can’t teach it because she hasn’t lived it but it’s long overdue.

It’s long overdue and sadly, so many of them will continue dying until more of us become willing to teach them the lesson…