By Nadia Rivas
Maya Angelou a poet, dancer, singer, and activist was born on April 4, 1928. She was best known for a beautiful writing style. She grew up in St. Louis Missouri and left to live with her grandmother at a young age due to her parents divorce. After some time living with her grandmother, she went back to live with her mom at the age of seven where she was raped by her mothers boyfriend. He went to jail but then was released and killed. Believing his death was her fault, she went mute for six years and went back to live with her grandma until her teenage years. During this time her profound love for the English language was evident; she wrote many essays, poems and always kept a journal with her. Prior to the beginning of WW2, Angelou moved back in with her mother, who was living in Oakland California at the time. She attended George Washington high school, where she dabbled in dance and drama classes. At only 15 years old Angelou decided to apply to the Women’s Army Corps, but was rejected due to her race. As determined as she was, she applied everyday for three weeks and until she was accepted. Although she lied about her age Angelou got the job and became the first African American woman to work as a street car in San Francisco. She decided to go back to school after only working for a month where she graduated and later gave birth to her only child Clyde Bailey Johnson.
To provide for her child, she worked many jobs, then in 1949 she married Tosh Angelou, an electrician in the Navy. In 1950, African American writers formed a group called Harlem Writer Guild to support each other as black writers. Then in 1969, Angelou published her book I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, which was based on her early life. She was nominated for the national book award. Many schools thought the book was inappropriate and wanted to ban the book because of its strong sexual abuse content. Eventually, she published six more stories after.
Later on in life she wrote a song that was meant for president Clinton’s inauguration and won a Grammy then again 2002 for her spoken poems album. In 2010 president Barack Obama awarded Angelou with the Medal of freedom. This award showed her remarkable career and accomplishments.
After a lifetime of accomplishments, she sadly passed away on May 28, 2014. Several services were held to honor her memory.