Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Johnson on April 4, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri, to Bailey and Vivian Johnson.  At the age of three, she and her older brother, Bailey, Jr., were sent to live with their paternal grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas after their parents’ divorce.  Angelou’s grandmother, Annie Anderson, worked in a convenience store to support the family. When Angelou was seven, she went to visit her mother in Missouri. There, she was raped by her mother’s boyfriend, who was later convicted and sent to prison for the crime. In prison, he was kicked to death. Angelou blamed herself for his death and refused to speak for five years as a result of the guilt. She was ostracized by others who couldn’t understand her willful silence. With the help of her grandmother and friend, Bertha Flowers, she gradually lifted herself out of the gloom that kept her mute for so long.

After overcoming her depression, Angelou was able to excel in school. She and her brother went to live with their mother in San Francisco shortly after her graduation from the eighth grade. Angelou attended George Washington High School, while taking dance and drama lessons at the California Labor School. While staying at her father’s house, she had a dispute with his girlfriend, and ran away. She lived on the streets for a month before returning to San Francisco. With much persistence, she was able to get a job as a streetcar conductor. At the age of sixteen, Angelou gave birth to her son, Guy. Although unplanned, her child became her motivation for pursuing an education. Supporting her son was difficult because of racial and political oppression making jobs scarce for Blacks. The jobs she was able to get involved cooking, waitressing and operating a lesbian escort service. Before long, Angelou was taking drugs, but stopped once she realized their effect on her brother. She married, Tosh Angelos, a former sailor, when she was twenty-two.

Almost three years later, she left her husband to pursue dancing.  Angelou moved to New York, where she later began to study under Pearl Primus. Angelou’s success grew from her casting in Porgy and Bess, which toured in Africa and Europe. Upon returning to America, she co-wrote Caberet for Freedom, with Godfrey Cambridge, at a fund-raiser for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Angelou served as the northern coordinator for the SCLC for a year.  Angelou made an appearance in the off-Broadway production of The Blacks, before moving to Africa with her son and boyfriend Vusumzi Make. After an altercation, she left Make and moved to Ghana with her son. There, she taught at the University of Ghana, and worked as a journalist. She returned to America in 1966. Angelou’s bestseller, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, was published in 1970. In 1971, she became the first Black woman to with an original screenplay produced when Georgia, Georgia was made into a film. In the same year, Angelou was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for her poem, Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ‘fore I Diiie. In 1973, she was nominated for a Tony award for her Broadway performance in Look Away.  She married artist Paul de Feu the same year.

Angelou’s autobiographical works include: Get Together in My Name (1974), Singin’ and Swingin’ and Gettin’ Merry Like Christmas (1976), The Heart of a Woman (1981), and All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986). She earned an Emmy nomination for her performance in the miniseries, Roots, in 1977. Angelou moved back to the South in 1981, after she and de Feu were divorced. In Winston- Salem, North Carolina, she accepted a lifetime position as Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University.

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