Maya Angelou Maya Angelou Research Papers
Maya Angelou born Marguerite Annie Johnson born on April 4, 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri. Her parents are Bailey Johnson, a doorman and navy dietitian, and Vivian Baxter Johnson, a nurse and card dealer. When Maya was three and her brother Bailey Jr. was four their parents got divorced and their father sent them to Stamps, Arkansas. They went alone on a train to live with their paternal grandmother, Annie Henderson. This was the time during the Great Depression and World War 2 and she suffered financially. “In Stamps, the segregation was to complete that most black children didn’t really, absolutely know what whites looked like.” (Cox 12). Maya explains when she later visited Stamps as an adult she couldn’t bring herself to walk in the white
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Her friends were speaking out against prejudice and Maya wanted to contribute so she quit show business. She went to a fundraising rally for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference at the Harlem Church. Hearing Martin Luther King Jr. inspired her. She volunteered to write a script for a play, her organizational skills were noticed by others and lead into the center of the civil-rights movement. At 32 years old she became a full-fledged civil-rights worker. She organized fundraising meetings and dinners, wrote letters, asked for donations, and spoke for the cause. Two months later, Dr. King was sitting in her office and thanked her for efforts. She also coordinated the organization of Afro American Unity (OAAU) for Malcolm X. When Malcolm X was assassinated she was shell-shocked and went to Hawaii with Bailey. She realized all she really cared about was writing. She wrote I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings to do more than just explain her first 17 years. “I wasn’t thinking so much about my own life...to show how one person can make it through those times.” (Cox 68-69). The story was on the bestseller list and the first African American to be on the list. Her first book of poetry Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water’Fore I Diiie, was nominated for a Pulitizer
Her friends were speaking out against prejudice and Maya wanted to contribute so she quit show business. She went to a fundraising rally for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference at the Harlem Church. Hearing Martin Luther King Jr. inspired her. She volunteered to write a script for a play, her organizational skills were noticed by others and lead into the center of the civil-rights movement. At 32 years old she became a full-fledged civil-rights worker. She organized fundraising meetings and dinners, wrote letters, asked for donations, and spoke for the cause. Two months later, Dr. King was sitting in her office and thanked her for efforts. She also coordinated the organization of Afro American Unity (OAAU) for Malcolm X. When Malcolm X was assassinated she was shell-shocked and went to Hawaii with Bailey. She realized all she really cared about was writing. She wrote I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings to do more than just explain her first 17 years. “I wasn’t thinking so much about my own life...to show how one person can make it through those times.” (Cox 68-69). The story was on the bestseller list and the first African American to be on the list. Her first book of poetry Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water’Fore I Diiie, was nominated for a Pulitizer