What kind of help?

Reading documents from and a bit of an introduction to the New Left, specifically about Freedom Summer, raised questions for me about the helping relationships between white and black Americans.  One objection to the novel, The Help, has been that it suggests that the maids (aka the hired domestic help) needed the help of the young, white woman to gain their agency and ability to tell their stories.  Should we distinguish between their ability to know and articulate their experience and their access to the means to publicize those stories?  Would that be parallel to the strategic help young, white volunteers gave to voter registration campaigns by bringing the work to media attention?