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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. At the trial, what does Mrs. Jim Lee Barnett say she and her husband found when they came downstairs the night her husband was murdered?

2. Why does Stacey say white men use black women?

3. What is the only reason why TJ Avery was not lynched after he was caught?

4. What happens to TJ Avery's appeal for a new trial?

5. What happens when Stacey says he wants to go to TJ's trial?

Short Essay Questions

1. How would you interpret Cousin Bud's reason for wanting his daughter to spend time with the Logan family?

2. Describe TJ Avery's predicament in the story.

3. Analyze the reaction of finding Doris Ann hanging from a rope, in spite of the obvious fact that Wordell was the reason she did not die.

4. How would you interpret the Logan children's decision to sneak to the trial of their friend?

5. What is the reason the sharecroppers and day workers want a union, especially an integrated union?

6. Why is it more dangerous for Russell to wear a military uniform when he travels back to Indiana than to wear his civilian clothes?

7. Explain whether you feel Mrs. Barnett is, or is not, a credible witness.

8. Based on what you have learned up to Chapter 6, what problems would you say Cousin Bud faces because he married a white woman?

9. Paraphrase the story Cassie tells about how her family came to own their land.

10. How would you analyze Jeremy Sims' actions in the story?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay describing the boycott mentioned in the story and what happened to Mama and Papa Logan because of it.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay about the unfair treatment of the sharecroppers and day workers in the novel. The following questions must be answered: In what ways were the sharecroppers and day workers mistreated? Who mistreated them? Why were they mistreated?

Essay Topic 3

What did you learn from the novel about pre-civil-rights history? Write an essay detailing how closely this novel portrayed what actually happened during that period in our history? Give examples from the novel.

Resources:

http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/LitNote/A-Lesson-Before-Dying-Critical-Essays-The-Pre-Civil-Rights-South.id-63,pageNum-58.html

http://neabigread.net/books/lessonbeforedying/teachers/LessonBeforeDyingHandout2.pdf

http://www.wsulibs.wsu.edu/holland/masc/xcivilrights.html

http://www.pbs.org/harrymoore/

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1294360

http://www.centralhigh57.org/

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/till/

http://www.vcdh.virginia.edu/civilrightstv/

http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/travel/civilrights/index.htm

http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/par0pro-1

(see the answer keys)

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