Her name was Marguerite Ann Johnson. Later in life, she would change her name . . . to Maya Angelou.
Maya Angelou became a voice for women, a voice for the black community, garnering respect and admiration for her honesty.
She would say, “There is no agony like bearing an untold story inside of you.”
Angelou was challenged by her friend, author James Baldwin, to write an autobiography, which became “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”. The book would be critically acclaimed, but banned in schools and libraries because of its honest depiction of r*pe..
When asked by an interviewer why she wrote about the experience, she indicated that she wanted to demonstrate the complexities of r*pe. She also wanted to prevent it from happening to someone else, so that anyone who had been r*ped might gain understanding and not blame herself for it.
She would also later write another book titled “Letter to My Daughter”, which was dedicated to the daughter she never had but sees all around her.
In the book, she says, “You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.”
She would also write in her poem, “And, Still I Rise”:
“Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries…
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise…”
