Born Marguerite Annie Johnson in 1928, Maya Angelou had a very brutal upbringing. She encountered firsthand racial prejudice and discrimination from a very young age, as well as being taken advantage of sexually. While visiting her mother when she was seven years old, she was “raped by her mother’s boyfriend.” Angelou’s uncle murdered her mother’s boyfriend as vengeance for the crime. This was all so traumatizing for Angelou that she “spent years as a virtual mute” (“Maya Angelou”). She believed that because she had confessed who raped her, that is why the man was killed; therefore she stopped talking for five years because she blamed herself for ruining her rapist’s life. Her school life also reflected how she encountered racism. While comparing the ‘white school’ to the ‘black school’ she said “Unlike the white high school, Lafayette County Training School distinguished itself by having neither lawn, nor hedges, nor tennis court, nor climbing ivy” (Angelou.) As a young girl, she was …show more content…
For one of her published collections of several poems, Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ‘Fore I Die, she received a Pulitzer Prize nomination. Angelou also wrote a poem, On the Pulse of the Morning, especially for the inauguration of President Bill Clinton. This marked “the first inaugural recitation since 1961,” the previous one being Robert Frost reciting his poem The Gift Outright at President John F. Kennedy’s inauguration. She then recorded the poem and won a Grammy award (best spoken word album) for it. In 1995, Angelou was highly praised for remaining on The New York Times’ paper-back best seller list for the longest running record in the chart’s history - two years. After her death in 2014, President Barack Obama recognized Angelou as a “a brilliant writer, a fierce friend, and a truly phenomenal woman. [She] had the ability to remind us that we are all God's children; that we all have something to offer” (“Maya