Public discussion, screening of "The Help" at downtown library

A special public screening of the multiple award-winning box office hit movie "The Help" will be presented at The Public Library's downtown Chattanooga branch Saturday morning as part of a Lunch & Learn discussion series during Black History Month.

The screening will be immediately followed by a panel discussion about issues and themes explored and excluded in the movie, moderated by Miss Black Tennessee U.S.A. and Chattanooga native Lorean C. Mays.

Mays said she thinks personal histories, such as the story told in author Katherine Stockett's first novel that was made into the film, need to be told, but more importantly, they need to be heard by younger generations.

"This book has introduced a form of history to the African-American younger generations that is not too often talked about. A lot of young people are not going to know this history unless we share it with them," Mays said.

Mays grew up in Chattanooga and attended Red Bank High School. She went on to attend Cleveland State Community College and Southern Adventist University, majoring in nursing and nonprofit development.

Mays' father shared stories of his childhood and what it was like growing up with a working mom who cleaned houses on Signal Mountain in order to send her children to college. Although she never knew her grandmother, Mays said her history is kept alive in the family because of her father's stories.

"She worked on Signal Mountain to put my father and his sisters through college. When you have personal stories, and that is part of where you come from, you just have emotional ties to it. My grandmother passed before I was born, so I could never have those conversations with her," she said.

Talk Radio host Jeff Styles is one of the panelists who will share a perspective of someone who was essentially raised by the family's "maid" while growing up in rural Bowden, Ga.

For Styles, who talks for a living, this part of his personal history was not something he ever felt comfortable talking about in public for a long time.

"I was in college before I ever mentioned that I had a maid. And that was the first time I realized that there was such a stigma attached to it. So, I was always careful about when I brought it up," Styles said.

Styles, who has seen the movie but not read the book, said he plans to bring the only photo he has of Ollie Keith, whom he called a definite mother figure.

"The only problem I saw [in the movie] was there was no sign of the love and the bond between the maids and kids they raised—that I and all of my friends experienced," he said.

The panel discussion is an opportunity to listen to other stories, beyond Stockett's, from people in the community who have actually lived this history, whether they were "the help" or "the helped," organizers said.