What is the theme in The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd?

The summer of 1964 in South Carolina comes at just about the boiling point for race relations in American history. This was a pivotal summer of the Civil Rights movement. Tension between blacks and whites were high. Lily’s dependence on the Boatwright’s is an anomaly. Lily, a white girl, in living under the kind matriarchal care of a group of black women was a juxtaposition to the times.