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Maya Angelou

© Megan Drummond

The truly remarkable life of American poet and author Maya Angelou began on April 4, 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri. Born with the name Marguerite Johnson, Angelou spent most of her childhood living with her grandmother in rural, segregated Arkansas. After graduating with honors from the Lafayette County Training School in 1940, she moved into her mother’s home in San Francisco. Two years later, she gave birth to a son and began a series of jobs that included cooking and waitressing.

During the 1950’s, she married a South African Freedom Fighter and moved to Cairo. While living in Egypt, Angelou became the editor of The Arab Observer, the only English-language news weekly in the Middle East. The multi-lingual Maya relocated to Ghana and became feature editor of The African Review. She also taught for a period of time at the University of Ghana.

In the 1960’s, at the request of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Angelou became the northern coordinator of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Ms. Angelou has also had many requests made of her by presidents of the United States. Gerald Ford appointed her to the Bicentennial Commission and later Jimmy Carter appointed her to the National Commission on the Observance of International Women’s Year. In 1993, Angelou was asked to write and deliver a poem at President Clinton’s inauguration.

Maya’s career as a poet and author has been filled with many awards and honors. Her autobiographical book, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1970), made her one of the first African-American women to make it to the bestseller list. Since then, she has published ten bestselling books and written countless magazine articles. Her writings, which focus on the themes of perseverance, self-acceptance and the realization of one’s full potential, have garnered her numerous Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award nominations. She has also received Grammys for her reading of her poetry in two different audio collections.

Maya Angelou has also made an impact in the film industry through her screenwriting, acting and directing. She has made hundreds of appearances on television and won an Emmy nomination for her role in the miniseries Roots, as well as for her screenplay Georgia, Georgia. The screenplay was the first screenplay by a black woman to be filmed. Ms. Angelou has also produced, directed and acted in many plays.

Maya Angelou is currently an American Studies professor at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

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