How did maya angelou die

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Maya angelou early life
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Maya Angelou

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 which 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. The Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient 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 (c. 1949-1952), Vusumzi Make (c. 1961), and Paul Du Feu (c. 1973-1981)
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Poet, dancer, singer, activist, and scholar Maya Angelou was a world-famous author. She was best known for her unique and pioneering autobiographical writing style.

On April 4, 1928, Marguerite Ann Johnson, known to the world as Maya Angelou, was born in St. Louis, Missouri. Due to her parents’ tumultuous marriage and subsequent divorce, Angelou went to live with her paternal grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas at an early age. Her older brother, Bailey, gave Angelou her nickname “Maya.”

Returning to her mother’s care briefly at the age of seven, Angelou was raped by her mother’s boyfriend. He was later jailed and then killed when released from jail. Believing that her confession of the trauma had a hand in the man’s death, Angelou became mute for six years. During her mutism and into her teens, she again lived with her grandmother in Arkansas.

Angelou’s interest in the written word and the English language was evident from an early age. Throughout her childhood, she wrote essays, poetry, and kept a journal. When she returned to Arkansas, she took an interest in poetry and memor

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5 Crowning Achievements of Maya Angelou

Considered to be one of the most consequential figures of the 20^th century, Maya Angelou had a diverse career spanning five decades. First, she was a singer and dancer, then as a journalist and civil rights activist, and later as a memoirist, poet, and screenwriter.

Here’s a look at five monumental achievements of the late Angelou, who died at age 86 in 2014.

Read Her Biography

She was a civil rights activist

Having traveled the world and having met with Malcolm X while living in Ghana, Angelou returned to the United States in 1964 to help the Black leader in his political efforts. However, soon after she arrived stateside, Malcolm X was assassinated.

Despite his death, Angelou continued working with the Civil Rights Movement and helped raise funds for Martin Luther King Jr. Unfortunately, the young artist found herself devastated once again when King was murdered on her birthday in 1968. It was during this time that novelist James Baldwin encouraged Angelou to write, and she began work on her groundbreaking memoir I Know Why