A huge theme in this movie is belief. For Americans change would have never come for black society if it weren't
for the belief of the American people. Martin Luther King Jr. wasn't just a good speaker he had a belief that motivated
him. We had already had a war that killed more Americans than all the previous wars put together and still people
(especially in the South) didn't change their thinking of black people. They weren't slaves but they sure weren't equal .
What most school books forget to mention is that the church was the starting place for MLK Jr. and the civil rights
movement. There was a very prominent man named Malcolm X who used violent acts to fight against white oppression
but you don't hear about him anymore because it didn't work. It just made people hate blacks more. MLK Jr. found his
reasons and strategies for change in the Bible and you can see those same truths in The Help. Ideas like , “You will know
the truth and the truth will set you free,” “take up your cross and follow me” (do the right thing even if it costs you your
life), and “love your enemies” come straight out of the Bible. So many Americans called themselves Christians at that
time but very few were willing to really believe and live it out. MLK Jr. was the pastor of a church and challenged people
to look at the great differences between the claims of the Bible and the ways that Christians were treating each other-
both white and black-and that is what really brought change. Their belief led them to action.
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