Maya Angelou Descriptive Essay
Marguerite Ann Johnson was born on April 4, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri.
Maya’s nickname was given to her by her oldest brother, Bailey Jr. She was an African American women, growing up during a time when there was segregation. Maya was a poet, civil rights activist, dancer, film producer, television producer, playwright, film director, author, actress, and professor. In 1993, Maya recited her poem, “On The Pulse Of Morning” at Bill Clinton’s inauguration. Three weeks after Maya completed school, she gave birth to her son, Clyde (who changed his name to Guy Johnson) at the age of 17. Maya had many tough times, especially when she was younger, like the time Maya was sexually abused and raped by her mother’s boyfriend, Mr.
Freeman. Maya told her brother, which he told the rest of the family. Mr. Freeman was found guilty and went to jail. Three days after his release, Mr.
Freeman was murdered, most likely by her uncles. After this, Maya felt like she was responsible for Mr. Freeman’s death, her voice was the reason why he died, so she stopped talking for a while and was during this time that Maya got very interested in reading and writing. Maya also played a major role in the Civil Rights Movement, which was a movement to stop segregation and give the blacks the same rights as the whites. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
sent her to be a Northern Coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Before working with MLK, Maya was going to work with Malcolm X, but Malcolm got assassinated. After MLK got assassinated on Maya’s birthday, Maya started to write more and within her writing, Maya wrote about the blacks and all the slaves and what they have gone through, even about her life, this got her publicly known. In one of her books, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, Maya talks about growing up in Arkansas and giving birth to her child. This affected the way African Americans were viewed and treated in America, from being slaves, having no rights, and being treated like animals; now blacks have the same rights as whites and they are able to become successful. Maya’s writing showed the world how bad these blacks were being treated and that it needed to stop and it eventually did.
Maya is still alive today, living well at the age of 85.
