Despite almost four hundred years of racism, sexism and classism, Afro-American women have managed to sustain contact with their creative muses and with the needs and aspirations of their people. Frequently, these creative and activist women have been neglected by both Euro-American and Afro-American male critics. Additionally, with few exceptions these women writers have been excluded from the canon of Afro-American literature. Ann Allen Shockley has tried to remedy this situation in this anthology
