How does Black Boy contribute to the long-standing tradition of black autobiography of America?

Published in 1945, Black Boy has become a celebrated document of prejudice in the South and struggle in the North for African Americans, as well as a depiction of Richard Wright's version of the "American Dream." The novel met some opposition, not only because of its violent depiction of the South but also because of its in depth analysis of Communism. Apparently Part II of the novel ? The Horror and the Glory ? was edited out of the first edition copy. The Library of America published the later portion of Wright's autobiographical manuscript, entitled "American Hunger," for the first time in 1991. Whereas Part I ended with a tone of optimism, Part II presented the reader with what critic Jerry W. Ward, Jr. describes as "a lamentation, an extended riff on {Wright's} hazy notion that wholeness and decency and redemption lay up North."

But perhaps the most intriguing lesson learned in Black Boy is how Richard discovers the power of his own words, his own writing. Whether or not Wright predicted the profound effect the novel would have on the world of American literature and history is betrayed in his closing:

"I would hurl words into this darkness and wait for an echo?I would send other words to tell, to march, to fight, to create a sense of the hunger for life that gnaws in us all, to keep alive in our hearts a sense of the inexpressibly human."