Remembering the Life and Work of Maya Angelou
As we celebrate Black History Month, The Green Book Project is highlighting the lives of four great Black Americans. Our fourth African American trailblazer is American poet, memoirist and civil rights activist, Maya Angelou. Maya Angelou passed away on May 28, 2014 at the age of 86.
I chose Angelou to close out this month of African American trailblazers because she, like the three incredible human beings that I wrote about in the previous three weeks epitomizes a life well lived. My personal belief is that being great for your own sake is worthless. However, being great because you made a way for others, because you made the way better for others — that is a life worth living and a life well lived.
Maya Angelou was a prolific writer, who became known as one of the most influential voices of our time. She left her mark in every area of public life that she touched. Her numerous awards and honors throughout her life are testimony to the impact of her life on the world in general and American society in particular.
Early Life
Born Marguerite Johnson, on April 4, 1928 in St. Louis, she received her nickname ‘Maya’ from her older brother. At the age of three, she and her four-year-old brother Bailey were sent by train alone, to Arkansas to live with their paternal grandmother. Astonishingly, her grandmother was financially successful throughout the Depression and WWII thanks to the general store she owned and operated.
While living in the Jim Crow South was oppressive, she enjoyed the deep spiritual faith of African-American life in the South. At age seven, while visiting her mother in Chicago, she was raped by her mother’s boyfriend. The man was later killed by an uncle. This led to Maya becoming mute for five years. She later explained that she feared her voice caused the death of her attacker. Maya and Bailey were then returned to live with their grandmother. During this time she read widely and voraciously. Maya’s insatiable consumption of literary content is what provided her the foundation that she would draw from as a prolific writer with a unique writing style.
The siblings were reunited with their mother in Oakland when they were both in high school. At one point, she dropped out of school to become San Francisco’s first Black female cable car conductor. She eventually returned to school and became pregnant in her senior year. She had her son Clyde a few weeks after graduating.
Career Pursuits and Civil Rights Activism
Maya struggled as a single mother, holding many jobs. Over the years she was a waitress, cook, dancer, driver and singer. In 1952 she married a Greek former sailor and aspiring musician. The marriage was short-lived, but years later, when she became a nightclub singer, she took the stage name Maya Angelou. This was a variant of her Greek husband, Tosh Angelos’ name.
From 1954- 1955 she toured Europe as a professional actor in the stage show of Porgy and Bess. She danced with Alvin Ailey for a brief period and released an album — Calypso Lady in 1957. She and Clyde moved to New York so that Angelou could pursue a writing career. She joined the Harlem Writer’s Guild, where she met many Black artists and writers associated with the Civil Rights Movement.
In 1960 after meeting and hearing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr speak at a church, she was inspired to organize the Cabaret for Freedom to benefit the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). She was later named the Northern Coordinator for the SCLC. Her contributions to civil rights and the SCLC as a fundraiser were extremely successful. Later that same year, Angelou moved to Cairo, Egypt with her South African husband and freedom fighter, Vuzumi Make.
Living Abroad
During her stay in Egypt, Angelou became the editor of an English language weekly newspaper. The marriage did not last, so Angelou and her son moved to Ghana. In Ghana she worked at the University of Ghana as an instructor and assistant administrator. She also served as a feature editor for The African Review and wrote for the Ghanaian Times and the Ghanaian Broadcasting Company. During her time in Africa, she learned to speak French, Spanish, Arabic, Italian, and Fanti (a West African language) fluently.
While living in Ghana, Angelou met Malcolm X and began a correspondence with him. She embraced his new views on black nationalism, as it had evolved from his earlier polarized thinking to a more inclusive ideal. In 1964 she returned to the US to help Malcolm X build his new Organization of African American Unity. However, Malcolm X was assassinated shortly after her arrival bringing an end to the organization.
Return to America and
Angelou continued to work with Dr. King as the Northern Coordinator until his assassination on Maya’s birthday in 1968. Her friend, famed novelist and activist, James Baldwin encouraged her to write to deal with the devastation of this loss. She began writing the book she is most famous for, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969) is autobiographical and tells her life story from childhood until her son’s birth. The book was a critical and commercial success, garnering international recognition. She went on to write more than thirty published titles including several volumes of verse, stories and essays, and five more autobiographical books.
In 1972, she was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for her book of poetry, Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ‘for I Die. The following year her screenplay, the first by a Black woman to be filmed, was also nominated for a Pulitzer.
**Angelou appeared on television and in movies including the highly acclaimed miniseries Roots (1977), and the movies Poetic Justice (1993), and Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Family Reunion (2006). In 1996 she made her directorial debut with the feature film, Down in the Delta.
Recognition, Awards and Legacy
President Barack Obama presenting Maya Angelou with the Presidential Medal of Freedom
Angelou has been recognized in various capacities by four different presidents. President Ford appointed her to the American Revolution Bicentennial Commission, she served on the Presidential Commission for the International Year of the Woman under Carter, and she spoke at Clinton’s inauguration. Angelou was the first Black woman to recite poetry at a presidential inauguration. In 2000, President Clinton honored her with the Presidential Medal of the Arts and in 2010 Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor. She was also honored with the Ford’s Theater Lincoln Medal in 2008.
In 2021, the US Mint announced that they would be placing Angelou’s image on the reverse side of the quarter (replacing the US eagle). As part of the American Women quarter series, the first coins were released in January 2022. Maya Angelou is the first Black woman to appear on a U.S. coin.
Angelou has been awarded more than 50 honorary degrees. Angelou was named the first Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University in 1982, and continued to teach, lecture and write until her death in 2014.
Maya Angelou once said,
“We are not our brother’s keeper we are our brother and our sister. We must look past complexion and see community.”
Here at The Green Book Project we believe like Angelou, that we are our brother and sister. We are committed to creating a community that looks out for one another. We can’t do that without you. We need you, no matter your complexion, to join our community. We need you to be our eyes and ears. We need your experiences, and we need your action. Download The Green Book Project in the Apple App Store or Google Play. Write a review and share it today!
Awards
Angelou has received many awards and accolades, a few have been listed below:
