Before graduating, she worked as the first black female streetcar conductor in San Francisco. Before becoming a poet and writer, Angelou tried other occupations as a young adult. Maya worked as a fry cook, a dancer and performer, a cast member of the opera Porgy and Bess , coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference , and a journalist in Egypt and Ghana during the days of decolonization.
She was an actor, writer, director, and producer of plays, movies, and public television programs. During the s she made approximately eighty appearances a year as a lecturer, something she continued into her eighties. She was the first poet to make an inaugural recitation since Robert Frost at John F. Kennedy 's inauguration in Angelou died on the morning of May 28, , according to a family statement.
She was found by her caregiver. She had reportedly been in poor health and had canceled recent scheduled appearances. Angelou died in her home in Winston-Salem , North Carolina of natural causes at the age of Tributes were paid by Barack Obama , who called her "one of the brightest lights of our time" and "a brilliant writer, a fierce friend, and a truly phenomenal woman" and Bill Clinton , who described her works as "gifts of wisdom and wit, courage, and grace.
But while Maya Angelou best known today for her writing — as the author of more than 30 books and the recipient of more than 50 honorary degrees — she had many different careers before becoming a writer, and all before the age of 40, as TIME pointed out in her obituary. She moved through the world with unshakeable calm, confidence, and a fiery, fierce grace and abounding love.
He was convicted and imprisoned, and after his release he was beaten to death, a series of events that led her to stop talking for a period. In an interview with Winfrey, Angelou said that, while some places banned the book because of the rape scene, she also believed the book had saved lives by providing a model of endurance. Her mother got up with her at a. She first joined in , shortly after writing the film Georgia, Georgia about an interracial romance, but made her official directorial debut at 70 with Down in the Delta The movie is about a mother who sends her children away from Chicago to live with family in rural Mississippi so that they could learn about their roots.
She grew up in Stamps, Ark. Become a Member Sign up. Already a member? Contribute to our 20 Campaign. Education MegaMenu. Higher Education. Classroom Support. Louis native, fell in love with Bailey Johnson, Angelou's father, in , shortly after he returned from serving in the Navy. When Angelou was still a baby, her parents moved west, hoping to escape the racism of the South and Vivian's disapproving family.
However, in California, their marriage quickly turned rocky, and they separated when Angelou was three. She and her five-year-old brother, Bailey, were sent to live with her paternal grandmother, Annie Henderson, in Stamps, Arkansas, per The Guardian. At first, she thought that they had done a "terrible thing" to herself and her brother, but later in her life, Angelou said she would "thank God [ Annie Henderson, with her other son, Angelou's Uncle Willie, owned and operated the local general store.
She was a sharp businesswoman and a loving grandmother. Angelou greatly admired her grandmother, saying, "She gave me so many gifts," including "confidence that I was loved. Angelou returned to St. Louis just once to visit, when she was not quite eight years old. While she was staying with her mother, Vivian's boyfriend, a man named Freeman, raped Angelou.
She told her brothers, who then told the rest of her family. Freeman was arrested and found guilty but served only one day in jail for the crime.
Just four days after Freeman was released, however, Angelou's uncles beat him to death in retaliation. After the assault and subsequent killing, Angelou refused to speak for five years.
She believed that her voice had directly led to the man's death, saying: "My mother and her family tried to woo me away from mutism, but they didn't know what I knew: that my voice was a killing machine," via The Guardian. Angelou told Smithsonian Magazine that she credited this time for spurring her love for language: "I believe that my brain reconstructed itself during those years.
I believe that the areas in the brain which provide and promote physical speech had nothing to do. When Angelou was 14 and her brother Bailey was 16, her grandmother decided "he had reached a dangerous age for a black boy in the segregated south," according to The Guardian. She decided it was time to send them both back to live with their mother, who had since moved to Oakland, California. In , Angelou began attending the California Labor School in San Francisco, where she studied acting and dance on a scholarship, per Biography.
To earn extra money while studying, she decided she wanted to work as a cable car conductor, because she "loved the uniforms," according to Time. The Market Street Railway Company initially refused to hire her because of the color of her skin, but she was determined.
She showed up to the company every morning and sat there reading books until management finally relented and offered her the job. At just 16 years old, she became San Francisco's first female African-American cable car conductor. Also that year, she became pregnant after having sex to prove she wasn't a lesbian, per Boston.
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