Injustice and the importance of being a man in A Lesson Before DyingJustitia, the goddess of justice, is depicted with a blindfold that holds a scale and a sword, but she, in using the scale and the sword, has never been color blind in the United States 1[1]Ernest J. Gaines accuses legal injustice against the black population through the death of an inmate innocent, Jefferson's death in A Lesson Before Dying. However, Gaines penetrates the fact that legal injustice is rather a result than a cause. Behind the unjust legal system exists a huge matrix of cultural injustice, which always already presupposes people of color as criminals. Gaines, therefore, places more emphasis on Jefferson's transformation from "pig" to man. By freeing himself from the demeaning notion of self, a cultural construction in a white dominant society, and establishing his own humanity, Jefferson exemplifies the potential of black emancipation against prevailing racial injustices.2[2] Gaines' insight and mastery, which channel the legal aspects of injustice into the cultural framework, make the novel an extraordinary masterpiece of the century. First, Jefferson's case provides a prime example of the injustice in the American legal system in antebellum society. Since “white” America did not consider the black population as its citizens, the law was totally on the side of the dominant whites.3[3] Jefferson's trial is only an official gesture or ritual. Whatever happens during the trial, Jefferson is sentenced to death. The legal system functions precisely as a means of revenge. If a white man is killed, a black man must die for him. One of the most astonishing things about the Jefferson trial is the fact that, even before the conviction, every... means of paper... is justice. Grant's criticism of the date's decision-making highlights the hypocrisy of America as a Christian country. However, Jefferson is described as a Christ-like figure. On Gaines's skepticism toward Christianity, see Critical Reflections on the Fiction of Ernest J. Gaines, David C. Estes ed. (Athens, GA: University of Georgia P, 1994), 77-84 and 257-59.6[6] Herman Beavers, Wrestling Angels into Song: The Fictions of Ernest J. Gaines and James Alan McPherson (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania P, 1995), 174.7[7] On the relationship between "white" law and the cultural discourse that justifies racism within the legal system, Grant says: "They play by the rules that their ancestors created hundreds of years ago. Their ancestors said that we "We are only three-fifths human and they still believe that today" (192).