Angelou’s childhood was marked by nadirs of abuse and rape. When Angelou was eight years old, she and her brother were sent back to her mother’s care in St. Louis. During this period, Angelou experienced a great deal of racial prejudice, even following the 1939 Supreme Court ruling that declared segregated schooling unconstitutional.
Angelou’s early upbringing, split between different places, profound racial discrimination, and difficult personal relationships has been interpreted by critics as the source of her powerful themes, particularly her bold and often jubilant testimony of black female life. With her signature mix of hope, despair, and courage, she found the strength to turn tragedy into art.
At the age of 14, Angelou left St. Louis and returned to rural Arkansas, the place she considered home. She stayed in the southern region for many years, traveling extensively and holding a variety of jobs, from streetcar conductor to cook, waitress, maid, and bartender.
In 1950, Angelou moved to San Francisco and enrolled in the City College of San Francisco where she studied drama and dance. At the same time, she continued to explore her writing, publishing her first poem, “Sea Sands,” in an issue of the Compass, a local student newsletter, in 1951.
Angelou became increasingly involved with the civil rights movement and she associated with prominent figures, including James Baldwin, Malcolm X, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In the 1960s she and her son traveled to Egypt and Ghana, where she studied and taught at the University of Ghana and met with African leaders such as Kwame Nkrumah.
Angelou wrote a number of autobiographies, including I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), which is widely regarded as one of the earliest and most necessary works for advancing the discussion about race, gender, and identity in the United States.
Youth
At the age of three, Maya Angelou, as she was later known, was sent to live with her mother’s father, the Reverend –Bailey Johnson, in Stamps, Arkansas. Here her mother’s second husband, Willie Killian, an educated man who owned a home and a truck farm, taught Angelou the importance of owning property and taking pride in it. In Stamps, Angelou also became deeply invested in music, which in turn led to her love of literature and writing. She was also very influenced by her stepfather’s views on equality and the power that came with unifying with others who were similar to you and supporting one another.
Although Angelou’s time in Arkansas was safe and in her own home, the racism that was rampant in the region affected her profoundly. He encountered the harsh reality of racism and its effect on the lives of African Americans in the most personal way at the age of seven. She was sexually assaulted by her mother’s boyfriend. As a result of her suffering, Angelou fell into a four-year long period of silence, from age eight to twelve. This long silence resulted in a great deal of soul-searching and introspection.
She later moved to San Francisco to live with her mother and her mother’s new fiancé, who managed a restaurant. This move further familiarized Maya Angelou with the inequalities and racism that existed in California. Even as a young girl, she noticed the differences between the privileges for white people and those for African Americans, but it did nothing to diminish her pride in her heritage and race.
Adolescence
Growing up without a strong parental figure, young Angelou was sometimes lost and taken advantage of. For example, at the age of thirteen, she dropped out of school just one week before she was due to graduate. When she finally returned to school a year later, she suffered a severe case of culture shock since she had missed so much in the classroom.
Angelou was never formally schooled; the culture she encountered and the African American artists she emulated provided her with her artistic and literary training. Additionally, her experiences working various jobs, ranging from streetcar conductor to waitress, provided her with vital observational skills and a greater sense of the world around her.
In 1950, at the age of twenty-two, she gave birth to her son and also landed her first job as a freelance writer for the English department of the local paper, the San Francisco Sun-Reporter. After this break, Angelou embarked on a successful career as an actor, singer, songwriter, director and producer of plays, and publisher of several magazines, including the short-lived A&M Quarterly.
During the late 1950s, Angelou was very much in touch with the civil rights movement. She was friends with Movement leaders Nina Simone, James Baldwin, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In fact, it was Baldwin who suggested that she write an autobiography, which would eventually become I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings in 1969.
Social Activism
In the 60s, Maya Angelou became heavily involved in the civil rights movement and was one of the first African American women to be taken seriously as an author. At age 40, she was a regular guest at Dr. King’s dinner table, and she went on to join the voter registration movement in Mississippi as well as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
Angelou also worked closely with activists such as James Baldwin, Harry Belafonte, Stokely Carmichael, and Nina Simone. She was even appointed as the Northern Coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s anti-poverty program.
Angelou became a powerful speaker and wrote poetry that celebrated black culture and identity. She wrote a number of autobiographies, including I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969). This work is widely regarded as one of the earliest and most necessary works for advancing discussions about race, gender, and identity in the United States.
Angelou was also a spoksperson for the UNICEF’s “Say Yes to Children” program and toured South Africa for the organization. She lent her deep and melodious voice to spoken audio books, including her own works, for which she won a Grammy Award for best spoken word album of 1995 for On the Pulse of Morning.
Legacy
Maya Angelou left behind a powerful legacy of writing, activism, and art that truly made a difference in the lives of many African Americans. She was involved with the civil rights movement since its very beginning, developing close relationships with key figures and becoming an important voice within the community.
The power of Maya Angelou’s art transcends generations. She was adept at blending the personal and the societal, mixing painful revelations of her past with uplifting displays of her resilience and strength. She used her unique voice to push against society’s institutionally sanctioned racism and she never shied away from writing of personal pain and racism’s impact on African Americans.
Angelou was one of first African American women to write an autobiography, and as such she has been credited with paving the way for other African American female and queer writers to express themselves and tell their own stories. In addition to autobiographical writing, she also wrote non-fiction, poetry, drama, and fiction.
Recognitions
Maya Angelou received numerous recognitions and awards for her work, including Grammy awards for her spoken word albums and awards from Broadway, the National Book Foundation, the Poetry Society of America, and the National Medal of Arts. She was also inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame and awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in 2011.
Angelou’s works continue to hold a resonant power and are taught in many classrooms around the world today. Her writings transcended the boundaries of gender, race, age and culture, and were so influential that she was the first African American woman to be nominated to South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
In addition to writing, Angelou was also a professor of American studies at Wake Forest University. In this capacity, she was able to educate, inform, and influence generations of Americans. She was also a powerful speaker, and her oratorical style was greatly admired by her peers and audiences.
Final Years
Maya Angelou remained active, even in her last years. She kept publishing books, and in 2013, her memoir Mom & Me & Mom was released to critical and commercial acclaim. In the last years of her life she was appointed as the first lifetime Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University.
She was also actively involved as a spokesperson for the National Mentoring Partnership, Unicef’s “Say Yes to Children” program and the Boys and Girls Club of America. In all of these capacities, she actively worked to support young people and help them to reach their full potential.
In 2015, Angelou passed away at the age of 86. After her passing, many of her peers and contemporaries issued public condolences and tributes to celebrate the life of this remarkable woman. President Obama wrote a tribute recognizing Angelou’s contribution to American culture, and her grave in Winston-Salem, North Carolina has been declared a national memorial site.
Posthumous Work
Maya Angelou’s writings were published posthumously, including a collected work, The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou. In her absence, her legacy continues to live on in the form of studies, tributes, and initiatives, such as the Maya Angelou Freedom Forum Initiative in California, formed to teach the values of human rights, justice, and peace to young people of color.
Additionally, institutions such as Wake Forest University, Miami Dade College, and the University of Oklahoma offer courses devoted to Angelou’s work, and individuals have organized reading groups, social media campaigns, and book clubs throughout the country to celebrate her life and work.
In 2020, her poem “Still I Rise” was adapted into an animated film of the same name, narrated by Alicia Keys. The film featured animation created by various artists, each inspired by a different line of the poem. The film aims to inspire people to rise despite life’s challenges and adversity.
Angelou’s writings have been translated into six languages, including Spanish, German, Dutch, Swedish, and French. Her works continue to be anthologized in magazines and journals, and her life and work have had a lasting impact on the lives of many.
