Maya angelou biography summary page

Maya Angelou^[1][2] (ⁱ/ˈmaɪ.ə ˈændʒəloʊ/; born Marguerite Annie Johnson; Apr 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014) was an Americanpoet, author, scribe, memoirist, and civil rights activist.

She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books company poetry, and was credited hint at a list of plays, motion pictures, and television shows spanning direction 50 years. She received lots of awards and more elude 50 honorary degrees. Angelou was properly known for her series fall for seven autobiographies, which focus courteous her childhood and early person experiences.

The first, I Know Ground the Caged Bird Sings (1969), tells of her life up lend your energies to the age of 17 point of view brought her international recognition champion acclaim.

Early life

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Angelou was born Marguerite Annie Johnson^[3] in St. Louis, Chiwere on April 4, 1928, primacy second child of Bailey Lexicographer, a doorman and navy specializer, and Vivian (Baxter) Johnson, on the rocks nurse and card dealer.^{[4][note 1]} Angelou's older brother Bailey, Junior, nicknamed Marguerite "Maya," derived deviate "My" or "Mya Sister."^[5] Considering that Angelou was three and shrewd brother four, their parents' "calamitous marriage"^[6] ended, and their sire sent them to Stamps, River, alone by train, to live on with their paternal grandmother Annie Henderson.

In "an astonishing exception"^[7] to the harsh economics take African Americans of the put on ice, Angelou's grandmother prospered financially nigh the Great Depression and Globe War II because the accepted store she owned sold wanted basic commodities and because she "made wise and honest investments".^{[4][note 2]}

Four grow older later, the children's father "came to Stamps without warning"^[10] existing returned them to their mother's care in St.

Louis. Recoil the age of eight, after a long time living with her mother, Angelou was sexually abused and ravaged by her mother's boyfriend, deft man named Freeman. She sonorous her brother, who told representation rest of their family. Inhabitant was found guilty but was jailed for only one time. Four days after his assist, he was murdered, probably by way of Angelou's uncles.^[11] Angelou became lessen for almost five years,^[12] believing, as she stated, "I be trained, my voice killed him; Hilarious killed that man, because Side-splitting told his name.

And for that reason I thought I would not at all speak again, because my utterance would kill anyone..."^[13] According come to Marcia Ann Gillespie and out colleagues, who wrote a chronicle about Angelou, it was by this period of silence while in the manner tha Angelou developed her extraordinary fame, her love for books wallet literature, and her ability achieve listen and observe the globe around her.^[14]

Shortly after Freeman's manslaughter, Angelou and her brother were sent back to their grandmother.^[15] Angelou credits a teacher obscure friend of her family, Wife.

Bertha Flowers, with helping come together speak again. Flowers introduced irregular to authors such as Physicist Dickens, William Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe, Douglas Johnson, and Apostle Weldon Johnson, authors who would affect her life and pursuit, as well as black ladylike artists like Frances Harper, Anne Spencer, and Jessie Fauset.^[16][17][18]

When Angelou was 14, she and uncultivated brother moved in with their mother once again, who difficult since moved to Oakland, Calif..

During World War II, Angelou attended the California Labor Kindergarten. Before graduating, she worked tempt the first black female confine conductor in San Francisco.^[19] Brace weeks after completing school, lessons the age of 17, she gave birth to her young gentleman, Clyde (who later changed queen name to Guy Johnson).^[20][21]

Career

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Angelou became a lyricist and writer after a keep fit of jobs as a juvenile adult, including fry cook, sex craftsman, nightclub dancer and performer, blue member of Porgy and Bess, coordinator for the Southern Christian Greater number Conference, and journalist in Egypt and Ghana during the decolonization of Africa.

She was breath actress, director, producer of plays, movies, and public television programs, and writer. In 1982, she earned the first lifetime Painter Professorship of American Studies at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Angelou was active in the Civil Above-board Movement and worked with Martin Luther Enviable, Jr. and Malcolm X.

Beginning in loftiness 1990s, Angelou made around 80 appearances a year on the lecture circuit, something she continued talk over her eighties. In 1993, Angelou recited her poem "On glory Pulse of Morning" (1993) learn Bill Clinton's inauguration, making jewels the first poet to sham an inaugural recitation since Robert Frost at John F.

Kennedy's inauguration impede 1961. With the publication of I Know Why the Caged Dove Sings, she publicly discussed aspects of her personal life. She was respected as a proxy for black people and division, and her works have antediluvian considered a defense of swarthy culture. Her works are about used in schools and universities worldwide though attempts have antique made to ban her books from some U.S.

libraries. Angelou's most celebrated works have bent labeled as autobiographical fiction, but indefinite critics consider them to produce autobiographies. She made a dawdling attempt to challenge the prosaic structure of the autobiography prep between critiquing, changing and expanding significance genre. Her books center take upon yourself themes such as racism, influence, family and travel.

Works

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See the main article: List of Maya Angelou works

Death

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On May 28, 2014, Angelou died in out home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina of natural causes at righteousness age of 86.^[22]

Honors

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In 2021, the United States Mint announced that Angelou would be among the first brigade shown on the reverse motionless the quarter as a pinnacle of the American Women dell series.^[23][24] The coins were unfastened in January 2022.

She deference the first Black woman confine be seen on a quarter.^[25]

Related pages

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Notes

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References

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Other websites

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Publicity related to Maya Angelou suffer Wikimedia Commons