Ernest J Gaines

Story of a black lady born into slavery on a Louisiana plantation, freed at the end of the Civil War, who lives for one-hundred more years.

Set in a small Cajun community in the late 1940s, A Lesson Before Dying is a novel of one man condemned to die for a crime he did not commit and a young man who visits him in his cell. In the end, the two men forge a bond as they both come to understand the simple heroism of resisting--and defying--the expected.

"About a courthouse shooting that leads a young reporter to uncover the long story of race and power in his small town and the relationship between the white sheriff and the black man who "whipped children" to keep order"--

An escalating spiral of hatred and violence erupts between Marcus, a young prisoner bonded to work in the fields of the Herbert Plantation, and his Cajun overseer Sidney Bonbon.

The history of blacks in the South as seen through the eyes of a 110-year-old former slave. Based on the novel by Ernest J. Gaines. Special features include new interviews, making of, behind the scenes, two all-new documentaries, and more. "One of TV's all-time best."--Leonard Maltin "One of the most profound and deeply moving experiences in the history of film."--Rex Reed