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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings fits the above criteria. Therefore as a representative of African
American political autobiography, it should be included in the Black political canon. In an interview
with Carol Neubauer, Angelou referred to the communal aspect of her autobiographical writing:
by the time I started Gather Together I had gone back and reread Frederick Douglass'
slave narrative. Anyway, I love the idea of slave narrative, using the first person singular
and meaning always the third person plural… And I see it all the time in the black
literature, in the blues, and spirituals and the poetry, in essays James Baldwin uses it. 9
Not only is Angelou prioritizing the collective over personal experience but she is also paying tribute
to the presence of this quality of African American writing since slave narratives to the present. It
also emphasizes the political nature of her autobiography, as Brewer described it, these types of
autobiographies "must also interweave and frame personal accounts of experience with a communal
'I'" 10 which Angelou has pointed out in the mentioned interview.
In addition, the exclusion of Angelou from the Black political autobiography canon can be based
on how critics view activist/political writing based on the extent of the writer's involvement or
engagement with the movement. With such an outlook, the works of the people who have central
roles to the movement such as the autobiographies of Malcolm X, Anne Moody, and Angela Davis
have precedence over others. Therefore, many other writers, whose work aims to raise political
awareness, are excluded, such as Alice Walker and Maya Angelou. Alice Walker explains her
perspective on this issue in the following passage:
It has become a common feeling, I believe, as we have watched our heroes falling over
the years, that our own small stone of activism, which might not seem to measure up to
the rugged boulders of heroism we have so admired, is a paltry offering toward the
building of an edifice of hope. Many who believe this choose to withhold their offerings
out of shame. 11
Therefore, Walker is criticizing the limited perspective of the canon that only qualifies certain
texts, written by central figures of the movement, as political activist writing and believes that
everyone's contribution to this field is essential in constructing a better future. Feminist scholar
Maria Lauret has a similar view regarding activism and political writing: "activists who put their
bodies at risk often lack time for self‐reflection, whilst the words of those who have it will be hollow
if they are not heard and acted upon." 12 According to Lauret, writing and activism cannot fulfill their
intentions without each other and both are necessary in giving a comprehensive depiction as they
provide the missing perspective for the other. This perspective towards activism and writing can be
observed in the works of writers such as Walker and Angelou.
The political nature of Angelou's autobiography is an integral part of the main story line of the
narrator's development from childhood to young adulthood. As her autobiography is a record of the
collective experiences of her community, Angelou depicts the everyday life and struggles of African
American in the segregated South during 1930s and 1940s, which was still very similar to the racial
issues present in the 1960s. In an interview with Claudia Tate, Angelou has referred to this collective
experience in her autobiography:
When I wrote I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, I wasn't thinking so much about my
own life or identity. I was thinking about a particular time in which I lived and the
influences of that time on a number of people. I kept thinking, what about that time?
What were the people around young Maya doing? I used the central figure – myself – as a
focus to show how one person can make it through these times. 13
Therefore, Angelou's narrative recounts many of these central experiences of her community. In
her life story, Angelou includes references to the Great Migration, the racial discriminative working
conditions, the Ku Klux Klan threat and the fear of lynching, the segregated educational system and