Marguerite Annie Johnson was born on April 4, 1928. Her beloved brother, Bailey, less than two years her senior, referred to her as, “My or Mya Sister”, and she became known as Maya. When she was three her parents divorced, and her father placed both her and her brother on a train to Stamps, Arkansas, to live with his mother. Stamps was a highly segregated small southern town. Their grandmother, Annie Johnson, owned a small general store that sold basic commodities to mainly black customers. Annie, whom they called Momma, placed high value on education and religion, and began instructing them in both. Maya’s lifetime love of learning and literature began here as she traveled through the pages of every book she could find to read.
When Maya