The most important thematic element of The Gold Cadillac is the ever-present shadow of racism and segregation that hangs over the family and their community. Since the story is told through a child narrator’s eyes, descriptions of racism are limited to ’lois’s own understanding of the concepts, as well as statements from Daddy that ’lois documents. There is no question, despite ’lois’s childhood in Ohio, that she and her family need to be “heedful of what white folks [think]” (26), as Daddy states. During the trip to Mississippi, however, segregation and the racist behavior of the police affect ’lois and her family in a way ’lois has not experienced before.

Mildred D. Taylor’s choice to depict ’lois and her family traveling into the Jim Crow South creates a story that illustrates not just the damaging impact of racist beliefs but also the terrible impact of racist laws and the behaviors that these laws support. While this novel deals with historical events and circumstances, readers can learn from ’lois’s experience about how structural racism contributes to racist interpersonal behaviors. Further, ’lois, as a child narrator, shows the internal effect of experiencing direct racist violence as the eventual result of laws and policies.