Maya Angelou Timeline

By avillamin22

  • Birth of Maya Angelou

    Maya Angelou was born as Marguerite Annie Johnson on April 4th, 1928 in St. Louis, MO

  • Silenced

    At the young age of 8, Angelou stops speaking because she believed her voice killed a man. The man she believed her voice killed was Mr. Freeman, her mother's boyfriend who sexually assaulted her

  • Job as a streetcar operator

    When she was only 16 years old, Angelou began working as a streetcar operator. She became San Francisco's first African American female streetcar operator

  • Miss Calypso

    In the late 1950s, she officially changed her name from Marguerite Annie Johnson to Maya Angelou. She began her career as a nightclub singer with the release of her first album: "Miss Calypso"

  • Becoming a leader

    By the request of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Angelou became the northern coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference

  • Civil rights work

    Angelou met the South African civil rights activist Vusumzi Make and in 1960 she moved to Cairo, Egypt. Here she worked as editor of the English-language weekly The Arab Observer

  • I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings

    Angelou publishes "I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings," an autobiography about her early life

  • Georgia, Georgia

    Angelou wrote the screenplay for the film "Georgia, Georgia." This was the first film written by an African American woman to be filmed. It was later nominated for a Pulitzer Prize

  • Professor of American Studies

    Angelou first came to Wake Forest University in 1973 for a speaking engagement. She was awarded an honorary degree there and eventually was named the university's first Reynolds Professor of American Studies

  • On the Pulse of Morning

    Angelou recited her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" at the inauguration of President Bill Clinton. This made her the first poet to recite at an inauguration since Robert Frost at John F. Kennedy's inauguration in 1961

  • Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom

    President Barack Obama awarded Angelou the 2010 Presidential Medal of Freedom and presented it to her in Februrary 2011

  • Death of Maya Angelou

    Maya Angelou died on May 28th, 2014 at the age of 86. Her presumed cause of death is natural causes