Making history isn’t an easy thing to do, but Maya Angelou, an acclaimed poet, faced the odds and led a truly impactful life. Throughout her life, Angelou also endeavored in civil rights and found success in writing memoirs. Her ability to write beautiful poetry and relate to readers with her poignant stories allowed her to have a career filled with achievements. She never had anything handed to her on a silver platter, which makes her successes even more noteworthy. Her hard work and dedication to her art made her a perfect role model for other aspiring dreamers. She not only set a good example for everyone, but she became a trailblazer for African-African women. The world welcomed Angelou on April 4th, 1928, in St. Louis Missouri. While everyone knows her as Maya Angelou, she was actually given the name Marguerite Anne Johnson at birth. She was born to Vivian Baxter and Bailey Johnson; the couple recently had Angelou’s older brother, Bailey Johnson Jr. While they were still very young, their parents split up, and they were both sent to live with their father’s mother, Anne Henderson. Their grandmother lived in Stamps, Arkansas, and the transition opened Angelou to many terrible experiences. She lived through racial prejudices and tons of discrimination, simply because of the color of her skin (Biography.com). …show more content…
Her first work, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, was an autobiography focused on her early years of life. It proved to be a huge sensation, as it became the first non-fiction bestseller by an African American woman. Angelou had been writing poetry even before her novels became well known, and it’s received praise from many for discussing sensitive subjects and important political and social issues. Another high point of her career was when she recited her poem On the Pulse of the Morning at the inauguration of President Bill Clinton