Historical Moment in Time

When I was reading The Secret Life of Bees, I noticed how people in the sixties was so racist towards each other. Do you notice it too? I just don't understand why it is a big deal for colored people to be beaten to death just because they wanted to vote. It made me go crazy when Rosaleen was put in jail for defending herself. Somehow, it is Rosaleen's fault for pouring the snuff jar on the white man's shoes, but worst comes to worst, he can just buy a new pair of shoes or pants to make up for the stain. 

After doing some research, Kidd's novel, The Secret Life of Bees made use of historical real-life issues, one that still lingers around in modern America, despite political movements and social change. Racism persists even when American top leaders gave their all to get rid of it. The sense of respect is all we need in the multicultural society. 

Civil Rights Act

The most prominent historical event to which Kidd's novel alludes is the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a significant piece of legislation that protected the rights of African-Americans or previously termed as 'blacks' or 'coloreds' to enter public places, enroll in schools, and avoid bullying from the then-racist whites.

Although the implementation of Civil Rights Act strengthened the black community and protected them from the fierce and often blood-thirsty claws of racism, this newfound freedom of blacks made the whites angry. Thus, evoking fearsome backlashes as experienced by Zach when he says that he could get killed for even looking at a white girl.

Racial Inequality

A struggle in this era is to change people's minds. Or at least, teaching them to be considerate to both blacks and whites.

Life was bad for the blacks during the segregation era. Whites and blacks had their own water foundations, schools and public bathrooms, but more often than not, the blacks' were of much lower quality and quantity than the whites'.

However, the blacks community started to and endlessly fought for their right to not be set apart from the whites, under the guidance of famous leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., who tried to draw people to him by giving memorable speeches of putting an end to segregation and racism as a whole. 

Jim Crow Laws

Under Jim Crow laws, African Americans were relegated to the status of second class citizens. Some of you may think that Jim Crow is a name of a people but trust me, it's not. Jim Crow is actually a song appeared in sheet music written by Thomas Dartmouth "Daddy" Rice. Rice, a struggling "actor" (he did short solo skits between play scenes) at the Park Theater in New York, happened upon a black person singing the song -- some accounts say it was an old black slave who walked with difficulty, others say it was a ragged black stable boy. Jim Crow represented the legitimization of anti-black racism. In the mid 1960s, Jim Crow was more than a series of rigid anti-black laws, it was a way of life. The Jim Crow system was established by the the beliefs that whites were superior to blacks in all important ways. If necessary, violence must be used to keep blacks at the bottom of the racial hierarchy. These are some of the Jim Crow etiquette norms:

• Blacks and whites were not supposed to eat together. If they did eat together, whites were to be served first and there is some sort of partition placed between them.
• Blacks were not allowed to show public affection toward one another in public, especially kissing, as it offended the whites.
• If a black person rode in a car driven by a white person, the black person sat in the back seat or the back of the truck.
• A black male could not offer his hand (to shake hands) with a white male as it implies being socially equal.

Throughout Lily's story, it is important to acknowledge that she grew up in South, where races were separated by both laws and attitude. Some of the Jim Crow etiquette norms that happened in reality, happened in The Secret Life of Bees. For example, blacks are not allowed to vote even after a law was passed to allow it. The police routinely allow black citizens, like Rosaleen, to be beaten by their white neighbors. All around Lily, she received strong messages of prejudice. The policemen who came to the Boatwright house and the receptionist at the lawyer's office both disapprove her living with the Boatwright sisters. 

In reality, many blacks resisted the indignities of Jim Crow, and far too often, they paid their bravery with their lives.