Maya Angelou Research Paper

Maya Angelou was a well-respected author and advocate for civil rights during her time. Her life was extremely impactful on the American society, because of her lifelong obstacles, her strong beliefs in civil rights, her contributions to the literary world and the arts. She had a miserable childhood that empowered her writing, due to the way she was treated as an African American in the 1930's which lead her to become a strong supporter of everyone's Constitutional rights. Maya Angelou's literary works were widely renowned by numerous respected professors and fellow writers. Maya Angelou was born in St. Louis, Missouri on April fourth, 1928. She was raised in Stamps, Arkansas. During her first ten years of life she faced brutality and racial

In later years she would embrace popular culture working with rappers, poets, musicians and filmmakers. Writing about her experience with eloquence and detail, Maya Angelou recorded history through poetry, biographies, journalism, children’s books, cook books and essays painting a picture of the American landscape for generations to come. During her years abroad, Dr. Angelou read and studied voraciously, learning French, Spanish, Italian, Arabic and the West African language Fanti. When she was there she met Civil Rights Activist Malcolm X and in 1964, came back to America build the Organization of African American Unity. Shortly after her arrival in the United States, Malcolm X was assassinated, and the organization dissolved. Soon after X’s assassination, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. asked Dr. Angelou to serve as Northern Coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. King’s assassination, falling on her birthday in 1968, left her devastated. Maya Angelou continued her work in Civil Rights and has also been widely recognized as a international ambassador for good will crossing lines of race and culture. Dr. Angelou has served on two presidential committees. President Clinton asked her to write a poem and to read at his inauguration. Angelou’s reading of her poem On the Pulse of the Morning was broadcasted live around the world. Maya Angelou was awarded the Presidential Medal of Arts and theNational Medal of Arts in 2000. She wrote the poem Amazing Peace for President George W. Bush and read the poem at the 2005 Christmas tree lighting ceremony. President Barack Obama presented her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian honor in