Maya Angelou was not always called by that name, she was originally named Marguerite Johnson. She was born in St. Louis, Missouri on April 4th, 1928. Mrs. Angelou was a poet, educator, actress, producer, historian, and a civil rights activist. Maya Angelou is significant in American history because she always fought for women’s rights, her songs always meant something, and people looked up to what she stood for. By the age of three, Maya and her young brother were sent to live with their grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas, until she was sixteen years old. She had a terrible childhood. Her parents got divorced, she had to move, and sadly she got raped by her mother’s boyfriend at the age of seven. The abuse affected her in a bad way. She no longer