Author+Bio

 =Maya Angelou =  **__Biography__**

Maya Angelou, or Marguerite Annie Johnson, was born on April 4, 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri. At only the age of three, her parents divorced, forcing her to go to live with her grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas. Maybe the most traumatic experience of her life happened when she went to visit her mother who was then living in Chicago, Illinois. While visiting her mother, her mothers boyfriend at the time, sexually molested her. Maya was so ashamed of what had happened that she decided not to tell any adults, and went and confided in her brother. Soon after finding out that one of her uncles had killed her attacker, she went silent for the next five years to come. At age 13, her and her brother rejoined their mother in San Francisco, where she finally began to speak again. After dropping out of high school at age 16, Maya became the first African American cable car conductor. Deciding that she wanted to make more of her life, Maya returned to high school only to be forced to overcome another obstacle. Right before she graduated in her senior year, Maya became pregnant. Luckily she didn't give birth to her new son Guy till a few weeks after her graduation.

In 1952 Maya married a Greek sailor named Tosh Angelos. Maya began her career as a nightclub singer, using the name Maya Angelou. This combined her childhood nickname and a form of her husbands name. Unfortunately, the marriage didn't last, but her career flourished.

Already with much success in the theater industry, she began composing song lyrics and writing poems. By the end of the 1950's, Angelou was interested in becoming a writer. So she moved to New York and joined the Harlem Writers Guild. A few years after moving to New York, Angelou met her future husband. Vusumzi Make was a South African civil rights leader that married Angelou and moved with her and her son to Cairo, Egypt. While living away from the states, Angelou learned several new languages. She became proficient in French, Spanish, Italian, Arabic and the West African language Fanti.

In 1964, Angelou moved back to America with the plan of helping Malcolm X build his Organization of African American Unity. But unfortunately, shortly after she moved back, Malcolm X was assassinated and the idea of his new organization was never carried out. Still wanting to be involved with the Civil Rights Movement, Angelou began working with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. While working with him, Dr. King requested that she become the Northern Coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. After his assassination the took place on Angelou's birthday, she was crushed. All this pain from the loss of a dear friend inspired Angelou to begin writing her first novel //I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings//.

Angelou found much success in writing novels and continues to do so. Since 1981 Maya Angelou has been the Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She has been featured in some films such as //Poetic Justice// and has directed the film //Down In The Delta.// She has also appeared on several broadcasts of Achievement Television in which she has answered questions that were sent in by various students from around the country.

Maya Angelou has been a soldier in the Civil Rights movement and has been an inspiration to all that have come across her. It seems as though there is nothing she can't do, having success in writing poetry, songs, novels, and even films. Angelou is truly an inspirational person and will be remembered always for the struggles she overcame and the accomplishments and achievements she was recognized for.



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