3. Against the backdrop of the civil rights movement,
White Gloves and Collards is the story of a privileged
childhood in Edenton, North Carolina, a small southern
town that cherishes its customs and history as
symbolized by the Confederate Monument at the foot
of Broad Street. As she copes with the untimely deaths
of her parents, young Helen observes how the
community is coping with a different kind of loss - an
end to the Jim Crow rules of behavior they've always
lived by.