“You may write me down in history/ With your bitter, twisted lies,/ You may trod me in the very dirt/ But still, like dust, I’ll rise.” – “Still I Rise” (1978)
Marguerite Ann Johnson, now better known as Maya Angelou, was born on April 4, 1928 in Missouri. She was well known for her poetry, memoirs, and role as a civil rights activist.
Her parents divorced when she was young, and she and her brother Bailey went on to live with their paternal grandma in Arkansas.
When Angelou was seven, she was briefly being taken care of by her mother and was raped by her boyfriend. According to the poetry foundation, due to the experience, Angelou became mute for 6 years and moved back in with her grandma in Arkansas.
She only started speaking again when she started high school, when she was living with her mother in California. There, she took dance and drama classes at the California Labor School.
She graduated from Mission High School in 1944 and gave birth to her only son. In 1949, she married Tosh Angelos
Angelou was also a professional singer and dancer, especially in the calypso and cabaret style. She performed throughout the world, and sold albums.
In 1959, Maya Angelou joined the Harlem Writers Guild and became an active member of the Civil Rights Movement. She was also the northern coordinator for the SCLC.
In 1969, she published an autobiography of her early life, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”, which many schools tried to ban due to its depictions of sexual abuse and racism. She eventually published six more autobiographies, as many volumes of poetry and essay collections.
Many of her works received prestigious awards, including nominations for the Pulitzer Prize and a grammy for her spoken word album.
She also wrote, directed, produced, and acted in many films and performances.
Angelou went on to receive more than 50 honorary degrees and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama in 2010. In 2015, the US postal service issued stamps in her honor, and in 2022, she had a quarter minted with her likeness, making her the first black woman to receive such an honor.
In 2014, Angelou would unfortunately pass away quietly at age 86. According to remarks made by her son, despite the tolls of her dancing career and respiratory failure causing constant pain, she wrote 4 books during the last 10 years of her life.
