Maya Angelou was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on April 4, 1928. From her youth, she lived an independent and exciting life, always thirsting for knowledge. She spent her early years living with her paternal grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas. At the age of seven, Angelou and her brother were sent to live with their mother in St. Louis, where they found plenty of interest and activity. As a young girl, Angelou had a highly varied life, switching between African American customs and white technological progress. She received some schooling in St. Louis and in Stamps, including spending one year at a school in San Francisco.
Throughout her childhood, Maya Angelou experienced a variety of cultures. She went to school in both the South and the North, and began to experience the difficulties of race in the United States. Angelou heard the stories of her elders, who had come from slavery, and of her parents, who had grown up during the Great Migration. In St. Louis, Angelou experienced racial segregation, appearing as a formality in the 1930s. Angelou was privy to the harsh realities of discrimination and prejudice, especially when she moved back to Stamps during her teenage years. During her time in Stamps, she was subject to more unreserved unequal treatment, a struggle which supplemented the fear she felt in relationship to the racism she had already witnessed in the North.
Maya Angelou’s life was often turbulent and unpredictable. While living in St. Louis and attending segregated schools, she was often subject to racial discrimination. Later in her childhood, Angelou moved to Stamps to live with her paternal grandmother, and this is where she faced much more explicit prejudice. During her teenage years, she moved back and forth between Stamps and St. Louis, as well as spending some time in San Francisco, another city she called home for some time. This constant flux of living locations meant Angelou was forced to live in an environment where she faced difficult struggles on a daily basis. Despite the hardships, Angelou maintained her unquenchable thirst for knowledge, a personality trait which was then fuelled by her travels and experiences as she grew.
Maya Angelou grew up in a time where bigotry and segregation flourished throughout the entire country. Despite this harsh reality, she held on to her dreams and ambitions and never let go. Throughout her life, Angelou experienced a wide range of cultures and situations, which allowed her to explore her identity. She was able to draw upon her childhood experiences to develop the strong moral compass that has enabled her to become the remarkable storyteller and respected public figure she is today.
Spending her childhood between two drastically different countries, Maya Angelou was imbued with a unique identity derived from both the African American culture of her early childhood in Stamps, Arkansas and the modern technological progress of St. Louis, Missouri. Her formative years molded her into an real-life example of resilience: navigating the difficulties of racial segregation and identifying a strong moral compass. Angelou continued to challenge herself for the remainder of her life, pushing her intellectual boundaries using the perspectives she had gained from her youth.
Racial Discrimination Experienced
As Maya Angelou’s upbringing was divided between two totally different locations, she experienced the ugly truth of racism and separation firsthand. Heavily discriminated against during her time in St. Louis, Maya found herself subject to a level of hostility not found in Stamps. This was down to the largely segregated schooling that was present in the area. Angelou also heard stories from her elders, who recalled the inhumane treatment they had faced during slavery and the impact this historic subjugation still had on the African American population today.
The differential between the two places became even clearer when Maya transitioned to Stamps during her teenage years. Here, she was subject to more unreserved unequal treatment, being well aware that her skin color held her back in society. This experience further fueled Angelou’s resilience and understanding of the struggles faced by many in the African American community.
In her personal life, Angelou faced a range of discrimination, from insults towards her mixed-race family to friends refusing to accept her despite their shared past. She viewed these experiences merely as “lessons” during her formative years, ultimately allowing her to acknowledge and accept human diversity.
Focusing on the positives of her upbringing, Angelou used the racism and discrimination she faced as stepping stones towards her understanding of self, her morals, and her ultimate place in society. This enabled her to stand strong in the face of adversity, which in turn has enabled her to embrace the journey of growth and learning she has been on her entire life.
The Impact of Moving Home
Often facing uncertainties with regards to home, Angelou’s childhood subjected her to a range of differing lifestyles and ways of thinking. Constantly toggling between the North and South, Angelou was always influenced by both aspects of her upbringing. One day she would be exposed to the white technological progress of St. Louis and the day after, she would be in the African American customs of her paternal grandmother in Stamps. This wide spectrum of living environments and mentalities allowed Maya Angelou to develop a hybrid identity that without a doubt contributed to the deep understanding of human diversity she has today.
The struggle of switching between two different homes was further enhanced by the constant presence of racism and prejudice that lingered in every aspect of society. From school to family life, Angelou was constantly dealing with a layer of animosity as a result of her skin color. As a result, the fear of experiencing this persistent harassment encroached upon her innocence, which was a feeling she carried throughout her life.
Despite the darkness of her formative years, Angelou never lost sight of her ambition and the strong moral backbone that was cultivated during her time in Stamps. This strength-of-character enabled her to transition from one home to the next, using her experiences as fuel for her never-ending quest for knowledge.
The characteristics strengthened in Angelou’s early life have been with her throughout her lifetime and have no doubt allowed her to become the intellectual powerhouse she is today. Her ability to transition between the North and South during her formative years without letting go of her dreams and morals is a testament to her resilience and the strong survivorship of the African American culture.
Angelou’s Impact on African American Culture
Maya Angelou’s formative years learning of slavery and the stories of her elders exposed her to the hardship of being African American in the United States. Since being subjected to racial prejudice and discrimination, Angelou became a powerful voice in the African American community, writing and speaking on a wide range of topics that affected the black populace. This included issues such as racial injustice, interracial relationships, assimilation of cultures, and the fight for civil rights. Her words and writings continue to impact the African American community today, helping to air the issues felt by so many yet often left unspoken.
In addition to speaking on African American rights and spearheading debates, Angelou also offered a sense of comfort and support to African American communities. Through personal relationships, Maya Angelou was able to provide counsel and understanding of the struggles each person faces during their own journey. This enabled Angelou to use her understanding of her struggles to help teach and comfort others, providing them with an influence that the likes of Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X had for her.
Angelou has earned her place in history, using her knowledge and resilience to become an immovable presence within the African American community. Her strength of character and outspoken advocacy for the rights of African Americans and women alike have made her a shinning example of a personality and a symbol of equality, earning her a great many admirers and putting further pressure on the world to recognize and accept the realities of systemic racism.
Angelou’s Literary Career
In parallel to her social and political engagement, Maya Angelou established an extensive literary career. As a 14-year-old, she started writing poems, which were her first steps into the world of literature. She moved on to write plays, journals, and well-documented autobiographies throughout her lifetime, which granted her literary acknowledgement.
Angelou was best known for her poem “Still I Rise”, a resounding declaration towards systemic racism. She wrote it as an act of defiance for the obstacles caused by prejudice, segregation and slavery. One line in the poem, “Just like moons and like suns, / With the certainty of tides, / Just like hopes springing high, / Still I’ll rise” has since become a popular symbol of strength and African-American survival. The poem was so powerful that it even earned a spot in the National Women’s Hall of Fame.
In her career, Angelou wrote seven autobiographies, edited a plethora of books and short stories and wrote several poems, including a collection of eleven named “Oh Pray My Wings Are Gonna Fit Me Well”. Later in her career, Angelou had a selection of her own essays and scripts published, as well as being invited to join the American Poets’ Corner in the Washington National Cathedral in 1981. This permanent part of the church was created with the mission to offer a sacred place to honor poets, their life and their works.
The accomplishments of Maya Angelou were unique in the sense that they provided an example of the strength of personality individuals should possess in order to overcome difficult circumstances in their lifetime. She used her knowledge, acquired through her travels and experiences, to create a platform on which to promote her literary career and to showcase the undeniable power of resilience.
Maya Angelou’s Influence on Education
Maya Angelou’s life was framed by her thirst for knowledge and her ability to use this understanding to exercise her creativity. As a result of her remarkable accomplishments during her lifetime, she was invited to become a professor at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, teaching American Studies and becoming the first female Reynolds Professor of American Studies in the process.
At Wake Forest, Maya Angelou worked with her students in the development of their writing and literary skills and encouraged deep learning. She created a platform for students to gain knowledge, allowing them to weigh and discuss issues confidently. This spirit of collaboration and guidance enabled her students not only to further develop their writing and analysis capabilities, but above all, to use knowledge as a superpower to improve the world.
Her tenure at Wake Forest was highly influential, positively affecting a plethora of students who went on to become successful writers, poets and academics. Her classes were engaging and her lectures profound, encouraging students to challenge their preconceptions and to look to grow intellectually. As such, Maya Angelou has become an inspirational presence in the sphere of education, showing how knowledge and learning can feed into a student’s own desires and aims.
In principle, Maya Angelou’s classes focused on students understanding their own history and learning the power of their own stories, using her own story as the perfect example of how understanding our own past and using this to strive for better can have a great influence on our lives. Angelou’s influence on education, with the focus on understanding our own story, is something which is still felt today, helping to drive a forward-looking agenda and make the world a better place.
