A Lesson Before Dying

In the 1940s South, an African-American man is wrongly accused of the killing a a white store owner. In his defense, his white attorney equates him with a lowly hog, to indicate that he didn't have the sense to know what he was doing. Nevertheless convicted, he is sentenced to die, but his godmother and the aunt of the local schoolteacher convince school teacher go to the convicted man's cell each day to try to reaffirm to him that he is not an animal but a man with dignity.

Directed by Joseph Sargent

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Cast

Don Cheadle

Grant Wiggins

Cicely Tyson

Tante Lou

Mekhi Phifer

Jefferson

Irma P. Hall

Miss Emma

Brent Jennings

Reverend Ambrose

Lisa Arrindell

Vivian Baptiste

Dana Ivey

Edna Guidry

Frank Hoyt Taylor

Sheriff Guidry

Stuart Culpepper

Henri Pichot

Von Coulter

Farrell Jarreau

Elijah Kelley

Clarence

Wynton Yates

Louis Washington

Patty Mack

Inez

Jameelah Nuriddin

Irene

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