2. By Maddie Spencer September 9 th 2014

3.  Maya Angelou originally known as Marguerite Ann Johnson was born April 4 th, 1928 in St. Louis Missouri.  She was raped by her mother’s boyfriend and was mute for 5 years after the occurrence.  Later Maya and her brother were sent to live with their grandmother in a town in Arkansas.  Maya gives credit to a family friend Bertha Flowers for helping her to speak again.  When Angelou was 14, she and her brother moved in with their mother once again, who had since moved to Oakland, California where she attended school.

4.  Maya was educated all through her life. When she was raped she struggled with speaking problems that were later dealt out  When she moved back to Oakland with her mother she attended school at California Labor School.  3 weeks after graduating, at the age of 17 Maya gave birth to her first child Clyde

5.  Maya’s career first began when she became the 1 st black streetcar driver.  In 1951, Angelou married Greek electrician, former sailor, and aspiring musician Tosh Angelos.  She took modern dance classes during this time, and met dancer and choreographer Alvin Ailey.  Angelou and Ailey formed a dance team, calling themselves "Al and Rita", and performed modern dance at fraternal black organizations throughout San Francisco  After Angelou's marriage ended in 1954, she danced professionally in clubs around San Francisco, including the nightclub the Purple Onion, where she sang and danced to calypso music.

6.  Maya Angelou started writing in 1968 after Martin Luther kings assassination by the encouragement of her friend James Baldwin. Who helped her write the book I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings.  Despite having almost no experience, she wrote, produced, and narrated Blacks, Blues, Black!, a ten-part series of documentaries about the connection between blues music and black Americans' African heritage, and what Angelou called the "Africanisms still current in the U.S.

7.  Maya had 1 brother named Bailey whom she was very close with.  Her parent’s were divorced and she lived with her grandmother for a great deal of her life.

8.  In New York, she fell in love with the South African civil rights activist Vusumzi Make and in 1960, the couple moved, with Angelou's son, to Cairo, Egypt.  Maya Angelou returned to America in 1964, with the intention of helping Malcolm X build his new Organization of African American Unity.  Shortly after her arrival in the United States, Malcolm X was assassinated, and his plans for a new organization died with him.  After Malcom’s death Maya continued being active in the Civil Rights Movement.

9.  Angelou is known for many of her works. Her most popular being I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.  I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is a story about coming of age that shows how strength of character and a love of literature can help overcome a great deal of things.

10.  Angelou as a novelist wrote 7 novels.  Mom & Me & Mom being her final novel. The novel focuses on her relationship with her mother.

11.  Angelou died on the morning of May 28, 2014  Tributes to Angelou and condolences were paid by artists, entertainers, and world leaders, including President Bill Clinton, and President Barack Obama, whose sister was named after Angelou.  On June 15, a memorial was held at Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco, where Angelou was a member for many years

12.  Maya Angelou. 2014 mayaangelou.com/bio/  Marguerite Annie Johnson. (2014). The Biography.com website. http://www.biography.com/people/maya- angelou-9185388