The+Commander



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= __The General__ = = Maya Angelou = = =

=Return to The Battlefield=

=Background Check= Born Marguerite Ann Johnson on April 4, 1928, Maya Angelou was an actress, educator, filmmaker, and dramatist before becoming the civil rights activist, poet, and author who has been called "America's most visible black female autobiographer" by scholar Joanne M. Braxton. Angelou had a rough life from a very young age, having been handed off to her grandparents along with her brother as a child. Later, she would go on to move back with her mother at the age of 8, but she was sexually abused and raped by her mother's boyfriend. Angelou reported this to her family and the man was convicted, but he was killed by her uncles after he had been released. This both scared and scarred Angelou, who went mute for many years following the murder, believing her words were poisonous, harmful weapons that led to a man's death. However, thanks to the encouragement of a close friend and mentor, Angelou went on to pursue careers in entertainment and eventually met Malcolm X and, subsequently, Martin Luther King Jr. King influenced her works as a civil rights activist, and she began to create works based on segregation and equality. This would continue on until for decades to come, even as "King's assassination, falling on her birthday in 1968, left her devastated" ("Biography"). Despite the heartbreaking tragedy, she published //I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings// a few short years later, and it became one of her greatest and most widely recognized contributions. Angelou was the first African American woman to speak openly about her past, and for that she was given many an award and recognized far and wide. She kept writing, and writes still today, for her passions, though her topics and genres have expanded to include family and identity along with racism and discrimination, to name a few. Though some of Angelou's more controversial works have been banned at schools, they are still a great focus topic in curriculum nationwide and still inspire the works of others.

Works Cited "Biography." //Maya Angelou: Global Renaissance Woman.// Dr. Maya Angelou, n.d. Web. 20 May 2013. . "Biography of Maya Angelou." //PoemHunter.com.// N.p. Web. 20 May 2013. .

=Poems=