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Matt Hiedo
Ms. Thomas
American Literature: Period 4
3 March 2012
Help Story
Maids were amongst the likes of slaves in the 1950’s. Racial tensions were high and
discrimination was extreme. This is depicted in the novel The Help by Kathryn Stockett. Stockett
describes the lives of African Americans during the 1950’s and 1960’s. There were many racist
acts toward African Americans especially towards Minny and Aibileen, two black women
working as maids in the novel. The story takes place in Jackson Mississippi where a young white
woman named Skeeter lived in for most her life. Skeeter fought for Civil Rights secretly. She
helped the maids by trying to publish a book about their lives as maids and how they are treated.
This book is a great illustration of how African Americans lived back in the 1960’s.
During the 1950's and 1960's African Americans never seem to be equal with the white
society due to the color of their skin, and their different personalities. Blacks have been
discriminated against for generations and separated from whites by law. Segregation has
oppressed blacks for years. For example, blacks had to us separate public bathrooms from the
whites. There were water fountains for black and only colored schools. There were laws
prohibiting blacks from having certain rights which lead to Civil Rights Movements,
consequently, cause violence and chaos. African Americans are threatened by groups if they did
not follow the law or rules. In the book The Help by Kathryn Stockett, she shows how racism
and discrimination destroys the chance to achieve the American dream for African Americans.
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African Americans have been segregated for generations since 1869. From the time of
slavery, Blacks have been put to work; and when they were finally free, they felt discriminated
for their personality and color. Dealing with threats and segregation, the African American
society never seemed to change. In accordance to the article School Segregation, the idea of
separating African Americans from established white communities was not a concrete law.
However it was preferred by those in the North who were "constrained by custom and racism
from sending their children to white schools" (School Segregation). Due to such traditional
influences, African Americans had no choice but to live in peace by agreeing to settle in areas
designated for the black population. Allowing black communities to vote was an improvement in
the lives of all African Americans during the 19th century. The passage of the Fourteenth
Amendment and Fifteenth Amendment made African Americans citizens and recognized that
black men had the right to vote. However, a backlash from white Southerners who worked
diligently to intimidate blacks with threats of violence and undermine any legal gains blacks
made during this period"(African Americans in U.S. history). A Group like the Ku Klux Klan
(KKK) worked deliberately to make sure only a limited number of African Americans was
allowed to express their rights. The group grew rapidly throughout the years and over four
million members arise to making African American lives more difficult and threatened. "The
different KKK organizations that exist today have in common a belief in the inequality and
separate interests of races and a desire to promote what they see as the interests of the white
race"(Civil Rights Movement). The KKK use methods of hate and violence to alert all types of
minorities. During the 1950's and 1960's, these groups held Civil Right Movements and African
Americans from being able to live a peaceful life. In the novel The Help, by Kathryn Stockett
describes the lives of African Americans during the 19th century and the things they went though
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to fight for their rights. Stockett shows how white characters in the book think there superior,
smarter and over all better then African Americans.
In the book, The Help, a white woman named Hilly Holbrook tries passing a law
allowing every white home in Jackson Mississippi to have an extra bathroom for the colored men
and women working for them. Hilly is undertaking this because she assumes colored people are
revolting and that if they use their personal bathrooms they could spread diseases. Hilly shows
her distaste with blacks by saying "All these houses they're building without maid's quarters? It's
just plain dangerous. Everybody knows they carry different kinds of diseases then we do"
(Stockett 10). What the characters agreed on was a disrespectful act towards black people. They
assume that because they are black they carry diseases that are harmful to whites. Hilly is selfish
and conspicuous towards the blacks. Therefore, because of her analogy she is protesting to
approve this law in the state without showing any proves of them carrying harmful diseases.
White people do not want anything to do with black people neither "no colored barber shall serve
as a barber to white women or girls" (Stockett 202). While in the library, Skeeter picks up a Jim
Crow Law book and discover a law white people do not think that blacks are as good as white
and for that reason they do not want to improve their business by buying a haircut. Throughout
Skeeters research there was another thing she discovered "Books shall not be interchangeable
between the white and colored schools, but shall continue to be used by the race first using them"
(Stockett 202). This shows how little white people think of black people. They think that they
were too stupid to learn and that white people were smarter and more superior then those, so they
should be the ones allowed reading and learning. In the book The Help, Stockett describes how
the white society destroys the American dream of African Americans through racism and
discrimination.
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In the 1950's and throughout the 1960's, the modern Civil Rights Movement was a time
period where social activism aimed to achieve a social economic and political equality for
African Americans. Aggressive nonviolent bus boycotts are demonstrations of the power of the
community by organizing the role of people in the fight for freedom that was sparked by a
famous African American named Rosa Parks. "Rosa Parks's refusal to give up her seat for a
white passenger, the bus boycott engaged all of Montgomery's African American community in
a nonviolent, mass protest of Jim Crow segregation that spanned 381 days, financially crippling
the Montgomery City Lines"(Cuthbert-Kerr). Rosa Parks, sometimes called the mother of Civil
Rights Movement, was a great human being because of her bravery for not allowing a white man
to take her set. The act of her resistance lit up boycotts which also lead to other boycotting
tactics, for example sit-in. Nonviolent tactics, like sit-in, were commonly used. They started by
student in North Carolina in a white segregated lunch counter. "Sit-ins established many of the
philosophical positions and tactics that would underscore the moment. Many activists who would
go on to play leading roles in the civil rights moment were first involved in sit-ins"(CuthbertKerr). Groups used this method anywhere in a legal matter allowing African Americans to fight
for their rights. The sit-in was used repetitively during the 1950's to challenge segregation. In
Woolworth's Carolina, four students demonstrated this method precisely. "Having made
purchases in the store, the four sat at the lunch counter and asked for service. When they
refused, they remained at the lunch counter until the store closed"(Cuthbert-Kerr). Local protest
had pervious sit-ins making connection with other local movements more sit-ins participates
gathered. With a network of young activist from colleges, churches, and other civil right groups
of color in the south the four connected with a Floyd McKissick, a powerful youth councilor
leader. By the end of the first week of protesting, over 400 sit-in students were engaged in the
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Greensboro. At this moment white mobs and threats were joining to harass the colored
protesters. At this moment the organized members of the groups were harmed by whites, and
officers of the state were accusing the colored protesters of trespassing and began arresting them.
The protests gave African Americans a choice to fight for their rights without being
discriminated against the sit-in method improved fierily.
In The Help, by Kathryn Stockett describes the everyday life of an African American and
the discrimination they go through on a daily base. In the book, Minny and Abileen were riding
the bus with other colored passengers as the bus driver turned to next corner of the street and
stopped "colored people off, last stop for you,' he holler in the rearview. 'White people lemme
know where y'all need to get to. I'll get you as close as I can" (Stockett 227). The colored
passengers were not allowed to go further because they have reached their maximum distance the
can go in the bus. For the White passengers not only they were allowed to maintain more of the
bus space but were also allowed to travel at any locations they want. After the bus situation,
throughout the book Minny gets beaten by her husband, "Them doctors ain't gone work on no
colored person, Miss Celia" (Stockett 359). African Americans are better off not going to the
doctors because of the doctor’s racial dislike of blacks. This is why they will not help Minny
even if she decided to go to one. This demonstrated the hardships of the African American lives,
such as not being able to travel and also no have insurance for any possible situation. Separations
with schools was a matter of color as well "Miss. Taylor says kids that are colored can't go to my
school cause they’re not smart enough" (Stockett 461). This shows the inequality Jackson
Mississippi had and how separate they kept the colored community away from them.
Discrimination was a large issue and Skeeter tried to change that by publishing a book about it,
hopping it could change the lives of those who lived in Jackson Mississippi.
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Kathryn Stockett was a brave woman to take on the pressure of making people sees both
sides of race in her book. Society is now out of a time where prejudice is obvious. It lurks
silently until it strikes the world with horror. Courageous authors like Stockett now come a dime
a dozen and barely speak up for the indiscretion of racial tension. It will take more than just The
Help of a novel to end the haunting of discrimination.