1928-2014
Who Was Maya Angelou?
A multitalented writer and performer, Maya Angelou is best known for her work as an author and poet. Her 1969 memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings made literary history as the first nonfiction bestseller by a Black woman. 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 earned her a Grammy Award. Angelou also enjoyed a career as a Tony- and Emmy-nominated actor and singer in plays, musicals, and onscreen. She became the first Black woman to have a screenplay produced with the 1972 movie Georgia, Georgia. In her work as a civil rights activist, she collaborated with Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, among others. Angelou died in May 2014 at age 86.
Quick Facts
FULL NAME: Marguerite Ann Johnson
BORN: April 4, 1928
DIED: May 28, 2014
BIRTHPLACE: St. Louis, Missouri
SPOUSES: Tosh Angelos (1949-1952), Vusumzi Make (1961), and Paul Du Feu (1973-1981)
CHILD: Guy Johnson
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Aries
Early Life
Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Ann Johnson on April 4, 1928, in St. Louis. 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. Bailey gave Marguerite the nickname “Maya,” which she would adopt as her preferred name later in life.
Growing up, Angelou had a difficult childhood. As an African American, she experienced firsthand racial prejudices and discrimination in Arkansas. Angelou also suffered violence at home when she was around the age of 7. During a visit with her mother, she was raped by her mother’s boyfriend. As vengeance for the sexual assault, her uncles killed the boyfriend.
Young Angelou was so traumatized by the experience that she stopped talking. She returned to Arkansas and spent about five years as a virtual mute.
As a teenager, a short-lived high school relationship resulted in Angelou becoming pregnant. She was 16 years old when she had her son, Guy Johnson, in 1944. After giving birth, she worked a number of jobs to support herself and her child.
Around this time, Angelou moved to San Francisco and won a scholarship to study dance and acting at the California Labor School. She also became the first Black female cable car conductor, a job she held only briefly, in the city.
Life as a Performer and Activist
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. 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).
A 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. helped found before becoming its first president. Angelou also served as the SCLC’s northern coordinator and became a close to King.
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. Afterward, the performer retreated from the theater scene for much of the 1960s. She lived abroad, first in Egypt and then in Ghana, and worked as an editor and a freelance writer. Angelou also held a position at the University of Ghana for a time.
In Ghana, she also joined a community of “Revolutionist Returnees” exploring pan-Africanism and became close with activist and Black nationalist leader Malcolm X. 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.
Back 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.
Books and Poetry Collections
In addition to her career as an actor and singer, Angelou wrote several memoirs, essays, and poetry collections in her lifetime. Establishing herself as a prominent literary voice, she pioneered autobiographical writing by blending prose with poetry and writing candidly about her life, bravely touching on topics like sexual assault, racism, and gender.
Angelou also authored two cookbooks: Hallelujah! The Welcome Table: A Lifetime of Memories With Recipes (2005) and Great Food, All Day Long (2010).
Movie and TV Career
After publishing I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Angelou broke new ground artistically, educationally, and socially by writing the movie Georgia, Georgia (1972). The drama made her the first African American woman to have a screenplay produced. It also earned her another Pulitzer Prize nomination.
Seeking new creative challenges, Angelou made her directorial debut in 1998 with Down in the Delta, starring Alfre Woodard. Her work on the film was recognized with the Chicago International Film Festival’s 1998 Audience Choice Award, as well as a nod from the Acapulco Black Film Festival in 1999.
As an actor, Angelou appeared in the 1977 mini-series Roots, as well as the films Poetic Justice (1993), How to Make an American Quilt (1995), The Runaway (2000), and Madea’s Family Reunion (2006).
Wake Forest University Professor
Angelou returned to teaching in 1982, accepting a position as the Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University in North Carolina. Over the course of three decades, she taught a number of humanities courses, including “Race, Politics and Literature,” “African Culture and Impact on U.S.,” “Race in the Southern Experience,” and “Shakespeare and the Human Condition.”
Angelou remained employed at the university until her death in 2014, though she taught her last class in 2011. That same year, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama.
Son and Husbands
In 1944, Angelou gave birth to her son, Clyde Johnson, when she was 16 years old. Johnson followed in his mother’s footsteps to eventually become a poet known as Guy Johnson. He died in February 2022.
Angelou was often tight-lipped about her personal life, and details of her marriages and relationships have been inconsistent—even based on her own accounts. She is believed to have been married at least three times.
Angelou wed Tosh Angelos, an electrician in the U.S. Navy, in 1949. She adopted a version of his surname and kept it through the rest of her life, despite the couple’s divorce in 1952.
In late 1960, Angelou met Vusumzi Make, a South African freedom fighter. The couple married in 1961 and moved to Cairo with her son in 1962, but the marriage dissolved soon after.
Later, in 1973, Angelou married carpenter Paul du Feu and lived with him in Berkeley, California, until their divorce in 1981.
Death and Legacy
After experiencing health issues for a number of years, Angelou died on May 28, 2014, at her home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She was 86 years old. A specific cause of death wasn’t given, but Angelou’s literary agent, Helen Brann, said that she had been “frail” and suffering from heart problems.
The news of her passing spread quickly with many people taking to social media to mourn and remember Angelou. Singer Mary J. Blige and politician Cory Booker were among those who tweeted their favorite quotes by her in tribute.
Then-President Barack Obama also issued a statement about Angelou, calling her “a brilliant writer, a fierce friend, and a truly phenomenal woman.” Angelou “had the ability to remind us that we are all God’s children; that we all have something to offer,” he wrote.
A memorial service for Angelou was held that June at Wake Forest University, where she taught for about three decades. Among the attendees were her close friend Oprah Winfrey, former President Bill Clinton, then-First Lady Michelle Obama, and actor Cicely Tyson. BeBe Winans and Lee Ann Womack gave musical performances.
In November 2020, the San Francisco Arts Commission unanimously approved the recommendation for a sculpture honoring Angelou “in recognition of her many accomplishments, including breaking the color and gender barriers by becoming San Francisco’s first African-American female streetcar conductor, an award-winning author and poet, a Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient and a civil rights leader.”
Developed by artist Lava Thomas, the monument was installed in September 2024 outside the main branch of the San Francisco Library. The design is a book featuring Angelou’s likeness on one side and the title of her famous poem “Still I Rise” at the base.
Maya Angelou Quarter
Meanwhile, Angelou has become one of the historical figures featured on U.S. money. It was announced in May 2021 that she would be one of the first women commemorated with a new series of quarters from the U.S. Mint called The American Women Quarters Program. The first shipments of the coin were made in January 2022.
The obverse, or heads, side of the coin depicts former President George Washington, with the reverse side showing Angelou with her arms uplifted. The bird in flight and rising sun behind her likeness are images inspired by her poetry and symbolic of the way she lived, according to the U.S. Mint.
Quotes
- Courage is the most important of all virtues, because without courage, you cannot practice any of the other virtues consistently.
- I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver.
- The caged bird sings with a fearful trill / of things unknown but longed for still / and his tune is heard on the distant hill / for the caged birds sings of freedom.
- If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.
- We may encounter many defeats, but we must not be defeated.
- I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
- Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with deeper meaning.
- How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!
- To grow up is to stop putting blame on parents.
- We are only as blind as we want to be.
- The intensity with which young people live demands that they “black out” as often as possible.
- Home is a refuge, not only from my worries, my terrible concerns. I like beautiful things around me. I like to be beautiful because it delights my eyes and my soul is lifted up.
- You may not control the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.
- When people show you who they are, believe them the first time.
- Let gratitude be the pillow upon which you kneel to say your nightly prayer. And let faith be the bridge you build to overcome evil and welcome good.
- If you get, give. If you learn, teach.
- In the flush of love’s light, we dare to be brave, and suddenly we see that love costs all we are and will ever be. Yet, it is only love which sets us free.
- I believe that each of us comes from the creator trailing wisps of glory.
Fact Check: We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn’t look right, contact us!
The Biography.com staff is a team of people-obsessed and news-hungry editors with decades of collective experience. We have worked as daily newspaper reporters, major national magazine editors, and as editors-in-chief of regional media publications. Among our ranks are book authors and award-winning journalists. Our staff also works with freelance writers, researchers, and other contributors to produce the smart, compelling profiles and articles you see on our site. To meet the team, visit our About Us page: https://www.biography.com/about/a43602329/about-us
Catherine Caruso joined the Biography.com staff in August 2024, having previously worked as a freelance journalist for several years. She is a graduate of Syracuse University, where she studied English literature. When she’s not working on a new story, you can find her reading, hitting the gym, or watching too much TV.
Tyler Piccotti joined the Biography.com staff as an Associate News Editor and is now the News and Culture Editor. He previously worked as a reporter and copy editor for a daily newspaper recognized by the Associated Press Sports Editors. In his current role, he shares the true stories behind your favorite movies and TV shows and profiles rising musicians, actors, and athletes. When he's not working, you can find him at the nearest amusement park or movie theater and cheering on his favorite teams.
