The Biography of Maya Angelou
In this Maya Angelou research paper the in life and actions of this powerful woman is reviewed to show the significance of her life and the power of her influence. Maya Angelou was born in St. Louis City in Missouri. Maya Angelou, a child of the Jim Crow South who rose to international prominence as a writer known for her frank chronicles of personal history and a performer instantly identified by her regal presence and rich, honeyed voice, died May 28 at her home in Winston-Salem, N.C. She was 86. Her literary agent, Helen Brann, confirmed the death but said she did not know the cause. Ms. Angelou had heart ailments and had been in declining health for years.
She grew up in St. Louis and Stamps, Arkansas. And she was an author, poet, historian, songwriter, playwright, dancer, stage and screen producer, director, performer, singer, and civil rights activist. She was request of Dr. Martin Luther King JrAngelou became the northern coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. As she was growing she really didn’t understand who her mother was. It was a different time in the 1950s.Racism and sexism were practiced unapologetically. Rebellion and resistance were not part of the American Psyche. Patriotism and conformance to the law was the mode of the day, even when that law was unjustly applied. Her mother was not having any of that; she confronted and challenged the authorities and the police whenever she felt an injustice was being imposed upon her, which for the time was extremely unusual. She was often branded as a troublemaker.In her family, the older members; her grandparents and great aunts and uncles, who regularly carried guns and often had altercations with the police, thought her mother was strange. They thought she brought unnecessary attention to herself because she fought other people’s battles.
They didn’t understand and neither did she at the time, that her mother’s actions were dictated by her principles.She served on two presidential committees, for Gerald Ford in 1975 and for Jimmy Carter in 1977. Maya Angelou was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the U.S., by President Barack Obama. Maya Angelou was awarded over 50 honorary degrees before her death. Maya Angelou attended George Washington High School in San Francisco and took lessons in dance and drama on a scholarship at the California Labor School.When Maya Angelou, just seventeen, graduated from high school and gave birth to a son,Guy, Angelou began to work as the first African American and first female street car conductor in San Francisco.
To end up research papers on Maya Angelou she married a white ex-sailor, Tosh Angelos, in 1950. After they separated, Maya Angelou continued her study of dance in New York City, returning to San Francisco to sing in the Purple Onion cabaret and garnering the attention of talent scouts.After they separated,Maya Angelou continued her study of dance in New York City, returning to San Francisco to sing in the Purple Onion cabaret and garnering the attention of talent scouts. From 1954 to 1955, she was a member of the cast of a touring production of Porgy and Bess. Maya Angelou sang in West Coast and Hawaiian nightclubs, before returning to New York to continue her stage career. Maya Angelou joined the Harlem Writers Guild in the late 1950s and met James Baldwin and other important writers.
