Read this excerpt from Chapter 1 of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou and answer the question.

When I was three and Bailey four, we had arrived in the musty little town, wearing tags on our wrists which instructed – ‘To Whom It May Concern’ – that we were Marguerite and Bailey Johnson Jr. … Negro passengers, who always traveled with loaded lunch boxes, felt sorry for ‘the poor little motherless darlings’ and plied us with cold fried chicken and potato salad.

Which of the following best describes the cultural context of this memoir?

train travel in 1940s American rural South
life of African-Americans in rural South of 1940s
voting traditions of African-Americans in 1940s American rural South
cotton-picking methods in 1940s American rural South