Maya Angelou - 1928
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San Pedro High School in San Pedro, California
Read other essays about Maya Angelou written by Arkansas students
Ashley Batterton and Charla Tidwell and Missouri students Melanie Seda and Shelly Laidley.I. Biography
On April 4, 1928, Marguerite Johnson was born in St. Louis, Missouri. "Maya" received her name from her older brother's interpretation of "my sister" so her family shortened it to Maya.
Angelou's parents, Bailey Johnson, a navy dietician, and Vivian Baxter Johnson, a nurse and also a gambler, divorced in 1931. Three-year-old Angelou and four-year-old Bailey Jr.
were shipped by train from Long Beach, California, to Stamps, Arkansas, to live with their grandmother known as "Mama" and their partially paralyzed Uncle Willie.
When Angelou was eight years old, her mother's boyfriend raped her. After going through this and finding out her family had to do with the killing of her attacker, for five
years she went without speaking but excelled in her academic work. She began to speak again when a woman known as Bertha Flowers began reading some of her favorite poetry and books with her.
After successfully completing eighth grade at Lafayette Country Training School, Angelou moved to Los Angeles with her mother and later settled in a house on Post Street in San
Francisco. She attended on and off at George Washington High School during the day and California Labor School during the night. Angelou's dream was to become a real estate
agent. She graduated in the summer from Mission High School. At the age of sixteen, Angelou bore a son named Clyde with a neighborhood boy.
Angelou moved about California getting jobs to support her and her son. She became the first black streetcar conductor in San Francisco. There was a time when she was a Madame
and prostitute to support her son but stopped in fear of being caught. II. Professional Life Angelou's career started in drama and dance. Angelou was inspired when she met
novelist, James Baldwin, and editor Robert Loomis. The strong writing of Linda Brent and Fredrick Douglass to Malcolm X and James Baldwin made Angelou interested in writing her autobiography.
Angelou took her essentials for writing, such as, yellow ruled pad paper, a Bible, pen and pencils, a dictionary, and snacks and would stay in a hotel room on weekdays writing from
six a.m. to noon with no interruptions. She did this for six months at one time and did not leave until she had a manuscript ready for publication. Using this process, she had her first break in 1970 with, I
Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Angelou was the first black to have an original screen play, Georgia, Georgia (1971). Angelou lived in Cairo, Egypt, and was the editor of the Arab Observer,
in the Middle East. Angelou also taught in Ghana, and was the editor of the African Review. Angelou is fluent in French, Spanish, Italian, and West African Fanti. She is currently a Reynolds
Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University in North Carolina. III. Influences While growing up, Angelou loved reading and liked to picture herself as if she was in the
book or poem. When Angelou was young, she loved writers such as Shakespeare, Kipling, Poe, Thackeray, Paul Donbar, and James Weldon Johnson. As Angelou grew she was inspired by Martin Luther King, Jr. who she met before he gave his
"I Have a Dream" speech. IV. Works by Maya Angelou I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings (1969) V. Maya Angelou on the Web
Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie: The Poetry of Maya Angelou" (1971)
Gather Together in My Name (1974)
Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas (1976)
And Still I Rise (1978)
The Heart of a Woman (1981)
Shaker, Why Don't You Sing? (1983)
I Shall Not Be Moved (1990)
Complete Collected Poems (1995)
VI. Works Cited Cliff Notes: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. This essay was submitted by a student of Kathy Honda Stein, a teacher at San Pedro High School, California.