In 1964, upon returning to the United States, Angelou helped Malcolm X set up the Organization of Afro-American Unity, which disbanded after his assassination the following year.īack in the United States, Angelou earned a Tony Award nomination for her role in the play Look Away (1973) and an Emmy Award nomination for her work on the television miniseries Roots (1977), among other honors. In Ghana, she also joined a community of “Revolutionist Returnees” exploring pan-Africanism and became close with activist and Black nationalist leader Malcolm X. Angelou also held a position at the University of Ghana for a time. She lived abroad, first in Egypt and then in Ghana, and worked as an editor and a freelance writer. Afterward, the performer retreated from the theater scene for much of the 1960s. In 1961, Angelou appeared in an off-Broadway production of Jean Genet’s The Blacks with James Earl Jones, Lou Gossett Jr., and Cicely Tyson. Angelou also served as the SCLC’s northern coordinator and became a close to King. helped found before becoming its first president. She landed a role in a touring production of Porgy and Bess, later appearing in the off-Broadway production Calypso Heat Wave (1957) and releasing her first album, Miss Calypso (1957).Ī member of the Harlem Writers Guild and a civil rights activist, Angelou organized and starred in the musical revue Cabaret for Freedom as a benefit for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which Martin Luther King Jr. In the mid-1950s, the world began to know Maya Angelou, her professional name adapted from her first husband’s last name, when her career as an actor and singer took off. Maya Angelou was nominated for an Emmy Award for her performance in the TV miniseries Roots, based on Alex Haley’s best-selling novel. She also became the first Black female cable car conductor, a job she held only briefly, in San Francisco. After giving birth, she worked a number of jobs to support herself and her child.Īround this time, Maya moved to San Francisco and won a scholarship to study dance and acting at the California Labor School. She was 16 years old whens he delivered her son, Guy Johnson, in 1944. She returned to Arkansas and spent about five years as a virtual mute.Ī short-lived high school relationship resulted in Maya becoming pregnant. Young Maya was so traumatized by the experience that she stopped talking. As vengeance for the sexual assault, her uncles killed the boyfriend. During a visit with her mother, Maya was raped by her mother’s boyfriend. She also suffered violence at home when she was around the age of 7. Bailey gave Marguerite the nickname “Maya,” which she would adopt as her preferred name later in life.Īs an African American, Angelou experienced firsthand racial prejudices and discrimination in Arkansas. Her parents split up when she was very young, and she and her older brother, Bailey, were sent to live with their paternal grandmother, Anne Henderson, in Stamps, Arkansas. Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Ann Johnson on April 4, 1928, in St. 1973-1981) CHILD: Guy Johnson ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Aries Early Life Louis, Missouri SPOUSES: Tosh Angelos (c. Quick FactsįULL NAME: Marguerite Ann Johnson BORN: ApDIED: BIRTHPLACE: St. The Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient died in May 2014 at age 86. In her work as a civil rights activist, she collaborated with Martin Luther King Jr. She became the first Black woman to have a screenplay produced with the 1972 movie Georgia, Georgia. Angelou also enjoyed a career as a Tony- and Emmy-nominated actor and singer in plays, musicals, and onscreen. Some of her famous poems include “Phenomenal Woman,” “Still I Rise,” and “On the Pulse of Morning,” which she recited at President Bill Clinton’s inauguration in 1993 and which earned her a Grammy Award. Her 1969 memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, made literary history as the first nonfiction bestseller by a Black woman. A multitalented writer and performer, Maya Angelou is best known for her work as an author and poet.
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