The Help, a book written by Kathryn Stockett, focused on the fight to overcome racial segregation with the emersion of Civil Rights following slavery in the 1960s. This book showed the hardships black house workers went through pertaining to their personal lives as housemaids for White families. “The help”, as they were called by the white folks, followed in their ancestor’s footsteps and remained loyal to their White families because it was all they knew how to do. Even if they wanted a different job, they were still stuck in the same job because of lack of education, economic issues, and social interactions.
When girls grew up in 1962, most of them did not have a strong education. Like Minny, many girls “quit school and [started their]
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She stated, “I've designed the Home Help Sanitation Act Initiative as a disease-preventative measure” (10). Black people were hired to do the dirty work and were paid very little. Outside of their jobs, black southerners were segregated in every aspect of living. They had separate schools, libraries, grocery stores, and even bathrooms. Aibileen was always into reading, but the black library didn't have the books she wanted to read. She asked Skeeter, a white college girl, to get her a few books, because “you know colored folks ain’t allowed in that library” (179). Skeeter knew the risks, but she also knew what a black family went through in Jackson, Mississippi. Despite what society thought was right, there were still people, like Skeeter and her family, who were looking out for the black community. Mr Phelen, Skeeter’s dad, stated, “I'm ashamed, sometimes, Senator. Ashamed of what goes on in Mississippi” (316) during a discussion of race at the dinner table. People like Skeeter and her family are one of the reasons “The help” stayed in Jackson; they felt respected by