Maya Angelou, An Amazing Woman Who Changed History

Women's History Month: Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou is best known for her inspirational writing. Her stories of the struggles she overcame inspired many. Let’s learn a little more about this amazing woman.

A Tragic Start: Maya's Early Years

Maya Angelou was born in St. Louis, Missouri on April 4, 1928. When she was just four years old, Maya and her older brother went to live with their grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas. They traveled alone by train.

While there, Maya’s Uncle taught her to read, and her love for books began. Maya loved all types of stories and would spend much of her free time reading.

Maya and her brother moved back to St. Louis at seven to live with their mother. Soon after, Maya was severely hurt by her mother’s boyfriend. After Maya revealed what had happened to her, the man was shot and killed. Maya believed it was her voice that caused the man to be killed, so she stopped talking. For the next five years, Maya did not say a word.

Maya Angelou Finds Her Voice

Maya and her brother were sent back to Arkansas until she turned fourteen. Then, she moved back in with her mother and lived in California. She graduated from high school in California.

While living in California, Maya became a talented dancer, singer, and actress. Following graduation, she toured Europe performing in an opera. She also got married and had a son.

There was a lot of turmoil and unrest in the United States in the 1960s. Maya joined Martin Luther King, Jr, and Malcolm X in fighting for African Americans’ equality. She became an active civil rights activist until Malcolm X was killed, which devastated her.

Maya often entertained her friends with vivid stories of her past, which they convinced her to write down. In 1969, Maya Angelou published her autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. This book eventually made her famous around the world.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings told the story of Maya’s life growing up until she was 17. She described the struggles she faced and how she overcame them. Many found inspiration and hope in her writing.

It was the first nonfiction best-selling book by an African American woman. It would gain Maya international fame and recognition for decades.

Maya Angelou would use her fame to speak out against inequality and injustice worldwide, especially in the African American community.

In the 1980s, she became a professor at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She inspired students for several decades, sharing her talents and vision for a better world.

A Life of Courage and Inspiration

Maya used her income and fame to support causes like education and literacy. In 2002, she set up the Maya Angelou Foundation to provide low-income children with better education.

In 1993, President Clinton asked Maya to recite one of her poems at his presidential inauguration. She would win an award for her poem, On the Pulse of the Morning, which she wrote for the occasion.

Later, in 2011, President Obama awarded Maya Angelou with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, recognizing all her contributions to America as a writer, professor, and civil rights activist.

Maya Angelou continued to write throughout her life until she died in 2014.

She even wrote her epitaph, which is a phrase used to remember a person after they die. It is often written on the person’s tombstone. Maya, however, was not buried but cremated, and her ashes were scattered.

Her epitaph reads, “I belong to the human race, and the whole race belongs to me.” This reflects her belief that we are all connected and have the same right to happiness.

Maya Angelou will always be remembered as a woman who communicated her strength, courage, and love for all people through her writing.