THE HELP - Ann Appreciation

I really enjoyed The Help by Kathryn Stockett published by Putnam in 2009. The story of black women who were the hired help of white women in the 1960s in Jackson Mississippi was told with humor, sadness, tension and excitement. The cruelty of the white people and the cornered docility of the black people made for a disturbing experience that drove home all the more the need for the changes in the laws.

Legal discrimination against black people ended finally in 1966 under President Lyndon Johnson. I hope you and many people will read this book to get a sense of what black women suffered during our own lifetimes. Though it is against the law to discriminate in the south, many blacks are held down by the social mores.