"Blues Ain't No Mockin Bird" was published in Toni Cade Bambara's critically acclaimed collection of short stories, Gorilla, My Love (1972).

Toni Morrison's novel Sula (1973) recounts the struggle of Nel Wright and Sula Peace, who live in the black community of Medallion, Ohio. The novel recounts the decline of the community after World War I, the ostracism of Sula by the townspeople, and the friendship between Sula and Nel.

William Faulkner's novel The Sound and the Fury (1929), one of the most important and influential novels of modern American literature, recounts the decline of a wealthy Southern white family and explores issues of race relations in the South through an experimental style, shifting narration, and use of dialect.

Zora Neale Hurston's novel Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) is an insightful portrayal of rural black life in the early twentieth century. Trained in...