The Secret Life of Bees is set during a time when African Americans were struggling for equality. In the North the momentum was gaining strength, but in the South change was coming slowly, even violently. Secret Life of Bees is set in Georgia during this time (in the Southern US) and, so, it is inevitable that there will be trouble. Rosaleen, Lily's housekeeper and sometimes nanny, illustrates this point when she is beat up because she wants to vote, and she talks back to some white men that she and Lily encounter in the town. Later, we see the civil rights and prejudice enter into the picture again when Lily falls for Zach (August's godson) who is African American.
