Maya Angelou
An influential writer, poet, and civil rights activist.
Maya Angelou was a multitalented poet and author known for her acclaimed 1969 memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.
Here's a timeline of Maya Angelou's life:
- 1928 - Born on April 4 in St. Louis, Missouri. After her parents' separation, Maya and her brother, Bailey, were sent to live with their grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas.
- 1935 - Maya and her brother returned to live with their mother in St. Louis, where she was sexually assaulted by her mother’s boyfriend. After his murder (reportedly by Maya’s uncles), she became mute for nearly five years.
- 1940 - Moved to Oakland, California, to live with her mother. There, Maya attended George Washington High School and took dance and drama classes.
- 1944 - At 16, Maya gave birth to her only child, Guy Johnson.
- 1952 - She married Tosh Angelos, a Greek sailor. Although the marriage was brief, she adopted the surname "Angelou," a variation of her first husband's name.
- 1954/1955 - Toured Europe and Africa as a cast member of the opera Porgy and Bess. She learned several languages and expanded her cultural knowledge.
- 1957 - Released her first album, Miss Calypso, and appeared in an off-Broadway production of Calypso Heatwave.
- 1959 - Moved to New York, where she joined the Harlem Writers Guild and met prominent African-American authors.
- 1960 - Became active in the civil rights movement, working with Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.
- 1961 - Moved to Cairo, Egypt, with her then-partner, Vusumzi Make, a South African freedom fighter. In Cairo, she worked as an editor for The Arab Observer, an English-language weekly.
- 1962 - Moved to Accra, Ghana, where she worked at the University of Ghana, edited The African Review, and continued her involvement in civil rights.
- 1964 - Returned to the U.S. to help Malcolm X build his new Organization of Afro-American Unity but was devastated by his assassination in 1965.
- 1968 - After Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated (on her birthday), she was encouraged by writer James Baldwin to focus on her writing. That same year, she wrote, produced, and narrated the documentary Blacks, Blues, Black!
- 1969 - Published her first autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, which became an instant bestseller and brought her international recognition.
- 1993 - Recited her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" at President Bill Clinton’s inauguration, making her the first poet since Robert Frost in 1961 to recite at a presidential inauguration.
- 2008 - Published Letter to My Daughter, a collection of essays dedicated to the daughter she never had
- 2011 - Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama, the nation’s highest civilian honor.
- 2013 - Published Mom & Me & Mom, the final book in her autobiography series, focusing on her relationship with her mother.
- 2014 - Passed away on May 28 at the age of 86, leaving behind a legacy of literary and cultural influence.
"Over the course of her remarkable life, Maya was many things — an author, poet, civil rights activist, playwright, actress, director, composer, singer, and dancer. But above all, she was a storyteller — and her greatest stories were true. A childhood of suffering and abuse actually drove her to stop speaking — but the voice she found helped generations of Americans find their rainbow amidst the clouds, and inspired the rest of us to be our best selves."
Learn more about Maya Angelou on Wikipedia.