Overview
Driving Miss Daisy explores the unlikely friendship between a rich, sharp-tongued Jewish widow of 72 (Daisy) and her African American chauffeur (Hoke) in the Deep South just prior to the start of the civil rights movement. A thoughtful and quiet Black man, Hoke is immediately treated with disdain by Miss Daisy. Unimpressed by his employer's patronizing tone and what he believes is her latent prejudice, the two slowly learn each others' truths and build a relationship that ends up lasting 25 years. Despite their many differences, the two grow closer to and more dependent on each other until eventually, they become couple-like. Slowly and steadily, the dignified and good-natured Hoke breaks down the stern defenses of Daisy as she teaches him to read and write and, in a gesture of good will and shared concern, invites him to join her at a banquet in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.
As the play ends Hoke has a final visit with Miss Daisy, now 97 and confined to a nursing home. While it is evident that a glimmer of her fierce independence and sense of position still remain, it is also movingly clear that they have both grown to realize they have more in common than they ever believed possible – and that times and circumstances would ever allow them to publicly admit.