Maya Angelou facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Maya Angelou
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Angelou in 1993
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| Born | Marguerite Annie Johnson April 4, 1928 St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. |
| Died | May 28, 2014 (aged 86) Winston-Salem, North Carolina, U.S. |
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| Period | 1951–2014 |
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Tosh Angelos
(m. 1951; div. 1954)Paul du Feu
(m. 1974; div. 1983) |
| Children | 1 |
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Maya Angelou, born Marguerite Ann Johnson (April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014), was a famous American author and poet. She wrote seven autobiographies, which are books about her own life. She also published three books of essays and many poetry books. Maya Angelou was involved in plays, movies, and TV shows for over fifty years. She received many awards and more than thirty special university degrees.
Angelou is most famous for her series of seven autobiographies. These books tell the story of her childhood and early adult life. The first book, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), made her very well-known. It shares her life story up to when she was seventeen years old.
Contents
Early Life and Challenges
Maya Angelou was born in St. Louis, Missouri. Her birth name was Marguerite Ann Johnson. She was the second child of Bailey Johnson and Vivian (Baxter) Johnson. When Maya was three, her parents separated. Her father sent her and her brother to live with their grandmother, Annie Henderson, in Stamps, Arkansas. They traveled there alone by train.
Her grandmother owned a general store that did well during the Great Depression and World War II. She was very smart with her money. Four years later, Maya and her brother returned to live with their mother in St. Louis. When Maya was eight, she went through a very difficult time and stopped speaking for about five years. She and her brother were then sent back to their grandmother.
A kind teacher and family friend, Mrs. Bertha Flowers, helped Maya during this time. She introduced Maya to many great authors like Charles Dickens and William Shakespeare. These authors, along with other Black female writers, inspired Maya greatly. Angelou said that Mrs. Flowers helped her find her voice and speak again.
When Maya was 14, she and her brother moved to Oakland, California, to live with their mother again. During World War II, Maya went to the California Labor School. Before she even finished school, she made history. She became the first Black female streetcar conductor in San Francisco.
A Life of Many Talents
Before becoming a famous writer, Maya Angelou had many different jobs. She worked as a fry cook, a dancer, and a performer. She was even in the opera Porgy and Bess. She also worked for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a group that fought for civil rights. Later, she became a journalist in Egypt and Ghana. This was during a time when many countries were gaining their independence.
Maya Angelou was also an actor, writer, director, and producer for plays, movies, and TV shows. In 1982, she started teaching at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She held a special teaching position there for the rest of her life. From then on, she called herself "a teacher who writes." She taught many subjects, including philosophy, ethics, and writing.
She was very active in the Civil Rights Movement. This movement worked to gain equal rights for Black people in America. She worked closely with important leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.
In the 1990s, Maya Angelou gave about eighty speeches a year. She continued to do this even when she was in her eighties. In 1993, she read her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" at President Bill Clinton's inauguration. An inauguration is a ceremony where a new president officially takes office. She was the first poet to read a poem at an inauguration since 1961. The recording of her poem even won a Grammy Award.
In 2010, Angelou gave her personal papers to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem. These papers included over 340 boxes of important documents. In 2011, she helped with the design of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial in Washington, D.C.
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Maya Angelou passed away peacefully on May 28, 2014, at her home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She was 86 years old.
Family Life
Maya Angelou was married twice. Her first husband was Tosh Angelos, whom she married in 1951. Her second husband was Paul du Feu, a carpenter from Wales. They married in 1974.
Angelou had one son, Guy, one grandson, and two great-grandchildren. Her mother, Vivian Baxter, passed away in 1991. Her brother, Bailey Johnson Jr., died in 2000. Both her mother and brother were very important people in her life and in her books.
Her Amazing Works
Maya Angelou wrote a total of seven autobiographies. These books tell the story of her life in different stages.
Her long career also included writing poetry, plays, and screenplays for TV and movies. She also directed, acted, and gave many public speeches. She wrote a lot of poetry. Her book of poems, Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie (1971), was even nominated for a special award called the Pulitzer Prize.
Angelou had a successful acting career. She appeared in many plays, films, and TV shows. One of her most famous acting roles was in the TV mini-series Roots in 1977. She also wrote the screenplay Georgia, Georgia (1972). This was the first original movie script written by a Black woman to be produced. In 1998, she became the first African American woman to direct a major motion picture, called Down in the Delta.
Her Autobiographies in Order
- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969): Covers her life up to 1944 (age 17)
- Gather Together in My Name (1974): Covers 1944–48
- Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas (1976): Covers 1949–55
- The Heart of a Woman (1981): Covers 1957–62
- All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986): Covers 1962–65
- A Song Flung Up to Heaven (2002): Covers 1965–68
- Mom & Me & Mom (2013): An overview of her relationship with her mother
Awards and Special Honors
Maya Angelou received many awards and honors from universities, writing groups, and the government. She was nominated for a Tony Award for her role in a play in 1973. She also won three Grammys for her spoken-word albums. She served on two special committees for presidents. She was given the National Medal of Arts in 2000 and the Lincoln Medal in 2008. In 2011, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which is one of the highest honors a civilian can receive in the U.S. Angelou was awarded over thirty honorary degrees from different universities.
Famous Maya Angelou Quotes
- “I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
- “We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.”
- “Courage is the most important of all the virtues because, without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently.”
- “You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.”
- “The desire to reach for the stars is ambitious. The desire to reach hearts is wise.”
Interesting Facts About Maya Angelou
- "Maya" was a nickname given to Marguerite Ann by her brother.
- After her challenging childhood, she graduated from high school. A few weeks later, she gave birth to her son, Guy.
- Angelou became a calypso singer and dancer near San Francisco.
- Her writing talent was noticed by James O. Killens. He encouraged her to join the Harlem Writers Guild.
- Maya moved to Ghana in 1962 and worked at the University of Ghana.
- She traveled back to the United States with Malcolm X. She helped him build his Organization of Afro-American Unity.
- Martin Luther King Jr. was killed on her 40th birthday. Because of this, she refused to celebrate her birthday for many years. Instead, she sent flowers to Dr. King's widow.
- Even though she never went to college, Maya learned a lot throughout her adult life. She preferred to be called "Dr."
- Angelou often wrote her works in a hotel room. She wrote autobiographies, cookbooks, and even greeting cards.
- She always added the word "joy" when she signed her books.
Images for kids
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Maya Angelou speaking at a rally for Barack Obama, 2008
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Angelou and Hillary Clinton at an event in North Carolina in 2008
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Angelou at York College in February 2013
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See also
In Spanish: Maya Angelou para niños
