Who and what does the free bird symbolize?

In by , the
caged bird is representative of both herself and those who have experienced the oppression of
racism and sexism. In her autobiography, I Know Why a Caged Bird Sings
(1969), Angelou discusses the pre-Civil Rights oppression of black people, especially
black women, who experienced the limitations of sexism in addition to racism.

The free bird in the poem is suited to its environment to the degree that it seems to
move with it in a synchronized fashion:

A free bird
leaps

on the back of the wind

and floats
downstream

till the current ends

and dips his
wing

in the...