I have to be honest. 
The only reason this is 3 stars and not 4 stars is because animals were hurt in the making of this book and I cannot abide by that.
However, the book was beautifully written, illustrating the racial injustices Wright experienced and fought against (or his friends did, considering this may not be fully autobiographical). 
The first part was very compelling, reminiscent of many coming of age tales. The second part wasn’t as interesting because it focused more on politics and Wright’s fall into communism, which had the potential to be interesting, but somewhere fell flat. 
Still, if this is a true memoir, it’s really hard to judge and rate it (especially a classic one!) because it’s someone’s life. You can’t say anything about the plot because it actually happened. 
I can say the writing and commentary was beautiful and evocative, the themes were strong, and you can tell he had things to say. 
But also please don’t hurt animals :( 

I found Black Boy to be a highly frustrating book at times; Richard Wright viscerally recounts what it is like to grow up as a perennial outsider, merely for wanting agency and respect in a world that denied both to him at every turn.

My knowledge of American history has many gaps, so the additional context offered by this book around the North/South divide was very insightful.

Despite it being very slow-paced and dense, I found myself getting much more into the book as it progressed, particularly from his late teens onwards. My main complaint would be that a lot of time was spent on his childhood, and while those formative experiences were very important and defining for him, I found it excruciating read about him getting accused of acting a certain way and beaten, and then repeat by several adults.