Marguerite Annie Johnson Angelou was born April 4, 1928 in Saint Louis, Missouri.
As a child, she went without speaking for 6 years. After she testified against he mother’s boyfriend the raped Maya Angelou at 7 years old. When he was beaten to death by a mob . “My 7-and-a-half-year-old logic deduced that my voice had killed him”, she said.
In 2010, she was the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, by President Barack Obama; the country’s highest civilian honor.
Known for her poetry; she used to sing. In 1957 , Angelou recorded her first album,”Miss Calypso.”
Maya Angelou, passionately taught at Wake Forest University, where she was honored after passing away in her Winston-Salem, North Carolina home, on May 28, 2014.
“When you know you are of worth, you don’t have to raise your voice, you don’t have to become rude, you don’t have to become vulgar; you just are. And you are like the sky is, as the air is, the same way water is wet. It doesn’t have to protest.”
-Maya Angelou
Loving Her Legacy: Maya Angelou was originally published on thelightnc.com