Maya Angelou
April 4, 1928 — May 28, 2014
Maya Angelou was an American poet, memoirist, civil rights activist, and towering literary figure whose autobiographical masterpiece I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings transformed how American culture talks about race, trauma, and Black womanhood — and whose voice, presence, and moral authority made her one of the most beloved public intellectuals of the twentieth century.
A Childhood of Trauma and Resilience
Born Marguerite Annie Johnson on April 4, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri, she and her brother Bailey were sent at ages three and four to be raised by their grandmother in the segregated town of Stamps, Arkansas. At eight, while visiting her mother in St. Louis, she was raped by her mother's boyfriend. When she reported the crime, the man was released from prison and murdered shortly afterward — and Maya, believing her words had killed him, went almost entirely silent for five years. It was during that silence that she devoured books and memorized vast swaths of literature, developing the ear for language and the capacity for observation that would define her writing.
A Life of Extraordinary Range
Before becoming a celebrated author, Angelou had one of the most improbable careers in American cultural history: she was a streetcar conductor (one of the first Black women in San Francisco to hold the job), a calypso dancer, a cook, a prostitute by necessity, a singer, a nightclub performer, a civil rights organizer alongside Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., an actor in off-Broadway theater, and a journalist in Egypt and Ghana. She wrote and performed her own calypso album. She spoke six languages. Her 1969 autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings — the first volume of seven autobiographies — was nominated for the National Book Award, became one of the best-selling memoirs of all time, and is taught in high schools and universities around the world.
Did You Know?
When Bill Clinton asked Maya Angelou to write and deliver a poem for his 1993 presidential inauguration, she became the first poet to read at an inauguration since Robert Frost at John F. Kennedy's in 1961. Her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" became an instant classic and won a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album. She later read a poem at President Obama's second inauguration in 2013. She is one of very few people to have participated in two presidential inaugurations as a poet.
Legacy
Angelou received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Obama in 2011. She published over 30 books of poetry, essays, and autobiography. She held a lifetime appointment as the Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University, teaching there for over 30 years while continuing to write and speak. She died on May 28, 2014. In 2022, her image appeared on the U.S. quarter — the first Black woman to be featured on American circulating currency. Her words — "Still I Rise," "Phenomenal Woman" — are among the most quoted in the English language.