After watching "The Help" at the AMC Theatres at Northlake, members of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority met at a nearby restaurant to discuss the film over dinner. (Photo: Qcitymetro.com)
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Yula Hawthorne can relate to the African American maids portrayed in the movie “The Help.” There was a time, she said, when her life was much like theirs.

After graduating high school, Hawthorne moved to New Jersey, and domestic work – in the home of a white family -- was the only type she could find.

Yula Hawthorn and her husband, James, both had mothers who worked as maids. (Photo: Qcitymetro.com)

“I worked for the summer as a maid in the home that I lived in,” she said. “I cared for a little girl, about three or four years old.”

Hawthorne said the experiences of the characters in the movie mimicked her own.

“It was true,” she said. “You could not eat at the same table with the employer, and I had a separate table to eat at when it was time for dinner or lunch.”

As moviegoers flocked to see the film that has much of the nation again talking about race relations, Qcitymetro.com caught up with Hawthorne and others at the AMC Theatres at Northlake. Overall, locals said they liked the movie and found it an accurate depiction of that era.

Set in 1960s Jackson, Miss., “The Help” tells the story of two black maids struggling to cope with the racist practices of their white employers.

Hawthorne's husband James called the movie “terrific.”

“I think it was real to life, and it depicted a time in history that folk can relate to, especially in the Deep South where these things actually happened,” he said. “Certainly, it captured reality.”

One of the themes addressed in the movie is the fact that black women often worked long hours raising their employers’ white children and had little time to spend with their own. That resonated with the Hawthornes. Both of their mothers worked as maids.

Yula Hawthorne described what it was like growing up for her and her six siblings: “My mother had to leave early in the morning. She would always tell us what to do. Get up and get your breakfast and get ready for school. We could not stay out of school… We had no one to care for us while she was away… I missed my mom when she was away. She trained us, the older girls, to cook dinner before she got home. After we got home from school, we knew we had to go in the kitchen and prepare a meal for all of us. When she got home (laughter), if she didn’t like what we cooked, she would have to cook whatever she wanted to eat for her and my dad.”

A story that needs to be told

Marian Sadler said the film tells the untold story of the life of the domestic.

“That was a heart-wrenching story,” she said. “It was an emotional roller coaster. It was funny, but there were some sad points.”

Sadler said her mother worked as a maid. Like the characters in the film, her mother experienced what it was like to raise children who would later grow up and treat her like “a second-class citizen.”

“It took me back,” she says.

Karen Gipson viewed the film with a group of women from Zeta Phi Beta Sorority. Afterward, they met at MiMi’s Café near the theater to discuss the film over dinner.

Gipson described it as a must-see movie.

“It’s a part of our history,” she said. “I think it’s always important that we reflect back on how things were and how those who came before us rose above that. We can still continue to grow and learn from those various lessons from our elders.”

Some see racism

Not everyone agrees. Some critics have panned the movie, saying they are tired of seeing black actors relegated to playing the role of the domestic. Social commentator and author Dr. Boyce Watkins called the film the female version of “Driving Miss Daisy.”

Sarbeth Flemming, who also participated in the Zeta Phi Beta discussion, questions who else would play the role of black domestics.

“If they didn’t use black actresses and used white individuals in black face to tell the story, then people would be upset,” she said.

Flemming added: “There were black individuals who cleaned up for other people in this country. To hide that fact and to try and say don’t go see it (the movie) because black actors are portraying what black individuals did is really saying we want to…rewrite history,” she said. “You can’t just say ‘I want to tell the history that puts me in the best light.’”

Sadler said she believes some would just as soon forget the dark parts of black history in America.

“I think they are trying to push slavery in the background like it never happened and they are not a part of it,” she said. “I think that’s a misfortune that they have discarded our history, because certain other groups of people, they keep that thing in the forefront, what happened to them. That’s history. It’s your roots.”

Cheryl “Sparkle” Mosley, a professional storyteller, agrees.

“Many people before us, whose shoulders we stand on today, are responsible for making it better for us, and yet we say we don’t want to see that,” she said. “We need to see it. We need to make sure our children see it and understand it so they will know how to face it when they come face to face with it.”

Saved by education

Unlike the women in the movie, Hawthorne had a saving grace -- a college education. When summer ended, so did her gig as a maid.

“The family wanted me to stay, but I said I must go home and finish college,” she recalled.

She said education was always important in her household. After earning her degree, Hawthorne pursued a career in education. She and her husband are both retired teachers with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school system. Hawthorne now spends her afternoons tutoring students from economically disadvantaged homes so that they, too, can have bright futures.

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