Still, you rise.
Maya Angelou (April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014) was an American memoirist, poet, playwright, civil-rights activist, and cultural icon whose seven autobiographies—beginning with **_I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings_** (1969)—transformed personal trauma into universal testimony. A towering voice of resilience, she recited her poem **“On the Pulse of Morning”** at Bill Clinton’s 1993 inauguration, becoming the first poet to perform at a presidential swearing-in since Robert Frost in 1961. Her work spans **36 books**, **50 honorary doctorates**, the **Presidential Medal of Freedom** (2011), and a **Tony** and **three Grammy** nominations. Angelou’s life embodied the alchemy of turning pain into power.
Born **Marguerite Annie Johnson** in **St. Louis**, Missouri, to Bailey Johnson (doorman and naval dietitian) and Vivian Baxter (nurse and card dealer), she was sent at age three with her brother **Bailey Jr.** to **Stamps**, Arkansas, after her parents’ divorce. Raised by their paternal grandmother **Annie Henderson** (“Momma”), who ran the town’s only Black-owned general store during the Great Depression, Maya learned thrift, scripture, and racial etiquette in the Jim Crow South.
At seven, during a visit to St. Louis, she was raped by her mother’s boyfriend. The man was convicted but kicked to death days later. Believing her voice had killed him, Maya fell mute for nearly **five years**. Literature—Dickens, Shakespeare, Dunbar—became her refuge. A teacher, **Mrs. Bertha Flowers**, reintroduced spoken language through poetry recitation.
| Period | Role & Milestone |
|--------|------------------|
| 1954–55 | Toured Europe and Africa with **_Porgy and Bess_** as **Ruby** |
| 1957 | Released calypso album **_Miss Calypso_**; appeared in Off-Broadway **_Calypso Heat Wave_** |
| 1960 | Appointed Northern Coordinator for **SCLC** by Martin Luther King Jr. |
| 1961–62 | Lived in **Cairo** (editor, _Arab Observer_) and **Ghana** (editor, _African Review_; University of Ghana faculty) |
| 1969 | Published **_I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings_**—first nonfiction bestseller by a Black woman |
| 1972 | First Black woman to have an original screenplay produced (**_Georgia, Georgia_**) |
| 1977 | Starred in landmark miniseries **_Roots_** |
| 1993 | Inaugural poem **“On the Pulse of Morning”** |
| 1995–2014 | Reynolds Professor of American Studies, **Wake Forest University** |
| Title | Year | Impact |
|-------|------|--------|
| **_I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings_** | 1969 | Banned in schools yet required reading; 1,000+ weeks on bestseller lists |
| **_Gather Together in My Name_** | 1974 | Survival as sex worker and madam |
| **_The Heart of a Woman_** | 1981 | Civil-rights era; Malcolm X, MLK |
| **_On the Pulse of Morning_** | 1993 | Grammy for Best Spoken Word |
| **_A Song Flung Up to Heaven_** | 2002 | King assassination aftermath |
| **_Letter to My Daughter_** | 2008 | Essays to women she never birthed |
From 1982, Angelou lived in **Winston-Salem**, North Carolina, teaching one seminar per year at Wake Forest while writing in hotel rooms. She directed her first film (**_Down in the Delta_**, 1998) at 70, published cookbooks, and mentored young artists.
On **May 28, 2014**, she died at home at age 86. Her final tweet (May 23):
> “Listen to yourself and in that quietude you might hear the voice of God.”
Angelou’s caged bird did not merely sing—it shattered the bars, teaching generations that **storytelling is survival**, **empathy is revolution**, and **phenomenal womanhood** is a birthright.