One of the problems of African American literature is that the men pretend the women don't exist and the women normally write, quite understandably, about how all whites and black men oppresses them. This does not result in bad works, but books by male writers annoy women and books by women are considered "Women's Literature", because a woman's experience is always considered exceptional.

In any case, this is an excellent book about what it meant to be black, in the States, in the thirties. Angelou writes mostly about her own life, but the way she weaves in the lives of her relatives is one of the most interesting protrayals of the life of a minority I've ever read. The language is beautiful without being too flowery. The structure is mostly episodic, which style books would frown upon, but is there any other way to tell the experiences of chilhood?

It seems outdated because it's almost forty years old, but this is the place to start if someone wants to know more about African American history through literature and biography.