"It's amazing how they hate us so much when so many of them are raised by black women." That's a line spoken by a black woman in "The Secret Life of Bees," circa 1964 in South Carolina.
This was the year U.S. President Lyndon Johnson put his signature on the Civil Rights Act, and though it marked a crucial point in American history, this film suggests how it had little or no effect on the lives of black people living in the Deep South. In one scene, a black girl watches the event on TV, and, barely able to contain her excitement, walks 6 km into town to become a registered voter. On the way she's beaten and then arrested because she didn't apologize to the white man who rammed his fist into her face.
Hatred and malice abounded, but as is amply demonstrated in the story, many white people just could not survive in the world without support and nurturing from African Americans. What the blacks thought about this setup is something that's briefly but effectively explored.