Maya Angelou Influences
Throughout our lifetime, we have come across many great people who have influenced our lives or changed the way we thought of others or ourselves. Someone who greatly influenced many lives in different ways was Maya Angelou. Maya Angelou is a woman who has overcome many struggles as a child, and as an African American. She has also written many memoirs and poems about her life experiences and the injustice that was happening to all African Americans in America. Due to these memoirs and poems, she has become very famous and acquired many awards such as the Grammy Award for the Best Spoken Word Album, Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Quill Award. Maya Angelou, the most famous female poet, was born in St Lois, Missouri on April 4, 1928
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by the parents of Vivian and Bailey Johnson. As a child, she has been through many trials and tribulations because she was a little black girl. At the age of 12, during World War 2, Maya Angelou moved to San Francisco California. In this state, she won a scholarship at the Californian Labor School to study dance and acting. Becoming a dancer and actor was going to be hard for her due to the fact she was a black female. Back then, people did not prefer a black woman to a white woman in stage production and entertainment. Still she persevered. Shortly after Maya was born, her parents divorced and Maya and her brother Bailey stayed with their mother. After the divorce, Maya’s mother started dating a guy she called Mr. Freeman. Mr. What he did to Maya changed her life forever. What happened was that while Maya’s mother was away, Mr. Freeman raped Maya and then told her that if she told anyone, he would kill her brother Bailey. After this misfortune, Mr. Freeman told Maya to take a far walk to the library. When the pain became too much she returned home and went straight to bed. Once her mother returned from work and noticed Maya laying down, she just supposed that Maya was just ill and sick. Then while changing the sheets they discovered the blood soaked panties lying underneath the mattress. Accordingly, Maya was put into the hospital and confessed it was Mr. Freeman who raped Maya. He was then arrested and taken to trial. At the trial Maya lied on Mr. Freeman about a previous time he molested her. Mr. Freeman was convicted, but before going to jail he was beaten to death. Hearing this news devastated Maya because she believed that because she had spoken and said lies on testimony had Mr. Freeman killed. Afterwards, Maya, an eighth grader, decided, “If I talked to anyone else. That person might die too. Just my breath, carrying my words out, might poison people and they’d curl up and die like the black fat slugs that only pretend. I had to stop talking.” Her tried to get her to talk by whipping, but she did not crack, and they suddenly got so tired of it so they decided to send her and her brother Bailey to Arkansas to live with their grandmother. She continued to stay silent for 5 years until she met a young lady named Mrs. Flowers. As an amazing poet, Maya Angelou had to have someone or something influence her life. Someone that influenced Maya’s life was the artist Langston Hughes. Looking and reading books by this poet encourage her to write her own poems to express how she felt. These poems allowed her to speak without saying actual words. Along with Langston Hughes she also read many other black authors because she felt empowered by what they were saying. Someone that also influenced Maya Angelou was the lady she met Bertha Flowers. Mrs. Flowers invited Maya over for cookies and lemonade many times and she always encouraged Maya to talk. So to get Maya to talk she made a deal with her and the deal was, Mrs. Flowers would lend Maya a book as long as she read the book a loud to her. Mrs. Flowers took Maya to the Stamps library and then checked out a book and had her read every book in the library out loud. This attention Mrs. Flowers was giving Maya made her break out of the silence and start talking to people again. At the age of 15 Maya Angelou struggled with deciding her sexuality. Maya Angelou was a lengthy flat chested woman with a deep voice and big feet. With these features, she thought she was a lesbian. The thought of her being gay was daunting on her for quite so she asked a well-known boy in the neighborhood to have sexual intercourse with her. Three weeks afterwards she found out she was pregnant. When Maya first found out that she was pregnant, she was thinking about having an abortion but decided not to because she would have been ashamed of what she would have done. Maya then had to tell her family, but she was so scared of what her family would think, so she hid the pregnancy for more than eight months. As the baby began to grow, her stomach began to expand. This would have caught the eye of most people, but not Maya’s mother. By the time it was close to having the baby, she knew it was time to tell her family about the baby. After she graduated, she wrote her family a note. In the note it states, “Dear Parents, I am sorry to bring this disgrace on the family, but I am pregnant. Marguerite.” Her family accepted the fact that she was pregnant and she was not going to marry the father. When it was time to give birth her mother, Vivian, helped in delivery. On July 1945, Clyde Bailey Johnson was born. As an African American Maya Angelou had to deal with all of the struggles and discrimination that all of the other black people had to deal with at the time.
While living in Arkansas, she experienced many events that degraded or discriminated an African American. One event she remembers vividly is when her grandmother was being degraded by the white primacy group, the Ku Klux Klan. Maya’s grandmother owned a black corner store where many people in the neighborhood to buy food. On this particular day Maya’s Uncle was hiding because for some reason the Ku Klux Klan was coming after him. When the white group came in Maya Angelou’s grandmother was standing out at the counter listening to all of the racist comments the group was saying to her. When the racist group became convinced that the Uncle was not there, they walked out, and Maya came out from the shadows flabbergasted at what just happened. From this experience Maya Angelou was very proud of her grandmother fir having such thick skin and dealing with all the hate without lashing out. From this experience Maya knew black women is powerful and strong and she wanted to become that, she also wanted the whole world to know that black women and black people in general was more than what most people
thought. After watching her grandmother in the store, she was so determined to write and publish poems about what she saw. This also gave her the idea to start marching for civil rights and be an activist for African American rights. When standing up for African rights she knew she had to be involved so she started marching in some of the most popular civil rights movements. Doing this allowed her to meet many great people such as Martin Luther King and Malcom X. By doing so much for the African American society she was awarded many awards. Some of the most famous awards she has gotten was the Presidential Award of Freedom and the NAACP award. Also when writing poems about her life and civil rights she didn’t know she was going to influence so many people in the world. She also didn’t know she was going to win an abundant of awards for writing about her life. Some of these awards was the Marian Anderson Award, the Quill Award, and the Lifetime Achievement Award. Throughout my lifespan I have read and heard about many people that do many different things and have many different backgrounds, but when hearing about Maya Angelou I am so inspired because of the fact that I feel as though she was a strong woman even though she has been through many obstacles that most of us wish to never face. When reading her poems and books I am inspired and moved by the challenges she has gotten through. Maya Angelou has not only changed me, but millions of other people in the world. She has helped many people find their true identity through her poems, memoirs, and autobiography. She has affected me because she has shown me that black women are definitely strong and powerful. She has also given me a new way of thinking. I now believe that anything is possible no matter what it is and what you have been through.
by the parents of Vivian and Bailey Johnson. As a child, she has been through many trials and tribulations because she was a little black girl. At the age of 12, during World War 2, Maya Angelou moved to San Francisco California. In this state, she won a scholarship at the Californian Labor School to study dance and acting. Becoming a dancer and actor was going to be hard for her due to the fact she was a black female. Back then, people did not prefer a black woman to a white woman in stage production and entertainment. Still she persevered. Shortly after Maya was born, her parents divorced and Maya and her brother Bailey stayed with their mother. After the divorce, Maya’s mother started dating a guy she called Mr. Freeman. Mr. What he did to Maya changed her life forever. What happened was that while Maya’s mother was away, Mr. Freeman raped Maya and then told her that if she told anyone, he would kill her brother Bailey. After this misfortune, Mr. Freeman told Maya to take a far walk to the library. When the pain became too much she returned home and went straight to bed. Once her mother returned from work and noticed Maya laying down, she just supposed that Maya was just ill and sick. Then while changing the sheets they discovered the blood soaked panties lying underneath the mattress. Accordingly, Maya was put into the hospital and confessed it was Mr. Freeman who raped Maya. He was then arrested and taken to trial. At the trial Maya lied on Mr. Freeman about a previous time he molested her. Mr. Freeman was convicted, but before going to jail he was beaten to death. Hearing this news devastated Maya because she believed that because she had spoken and said lies on testimony had Mr. Freeman killed. Afterwards, Maya, an eighth grader, decided, “If I talked to anyone else. That person might die too. Just my breath, carrying my words out, might poison people and they’d curl up and die like the black fat slugs that only pretend. I had to stop talking.” Her tried to get her to talk by whipping, but she did not crack, and they suddenly got so tired of it so they decided to send her and her brother Bailey to Arkansas to live with their grandmother. She continued to stay silent for 5 years until she met a young lady named Mrs. Flowers. As an amazing poet, Maya Angelou had to have someone or something influence her life. Someone that influenced Maya’s life was the artist Langston Hughes. Looking and reading books by this poet encourage her to write her own poems to express how she felt. These poems allowed her to speak without saying actual words. Along with Langston Hughes she also read many other black authors because she felt empowered by what they were saying. Someone that also influenced Maya Angelou was the lady she met Bertha Flowers. Mrs. Flowers invited Maya over for cookies and lemonade many times and she always encouraged Maya to talk. So to get Maya to talk she made a deal with her and the deal was, Mrs. Flowers would lend Maya a book as long as she read the book a loud to her. Mrs. Flowers took Maya to the Stamps library and then checked out a book and had her read every book in the library out loud. This attention Mrs. Flowers was giving Maya made her break out of the silence and start talking to people again. At the age of 15 Maya Angelou struggled with deciding her sexuality. Maya Angelou was a lengthy flat chested woman with a deep voice and big feet. With these features, she thought she was a lesbian. The thought of her being gay was daunting on her for quite so she asked a well-known boy in the neighborhood to have sexual intercourse with her. Three weeks afterwards she found out she was pregnant. When Maya first found out that she was pregnant, she was thinking about having an abortion but decided not to because she would have been ashamed of what she would have done. Maya then had to tell her family, but she was so scared of what her family would think, so she hid the pregnancy for more than eight months. As the baby began to grow, her stomach began to expand. This would have caught the eye of most people, but not Maya’s mother. By the time it was close to having the baby, she knew it was time to tell her family about the baby. After she graduated, she wrote her family a note. In the note it states, “Dear Parents, I am sorry to bring this disgrace on the family, but I am pregnant. Marguerite.” Her family accepted the fact that she was pregnant and she was not going to marry the father. When it was time to give birth her mother, Vivian, helped in delivery. On July 1945, Clyde Bailey Johnson was born. As an African American Maya Angelou had to deal with all of the struggles and discrimination that all of the other black people had to deal with at the time.
While living in Arkansas, she experienced many events that degraded or discriminated an African American. One event she remembers vividly is when her grandmother was being degraded by the white primacy group, the Ku Klux Klan. Maya’s grandmother owned a black corner store where many people in the neighborhood to buy food. On this particular day Maya’s Uncle was hiding because for some reason the Ku Klux Klan was coming after him. When the white group came in Maya Angelou’s grandmother was standing out at the counter listening to all of the racist comments the group was saying to her. When the racist group became convinced that the Uncle was not there, they walked out, and Maya came out from the shadows flabbergasted at what just happened. From this experience Maya Angelou was very proud of her grandmother fir having such thick skin and dealing with all the hate without lashing out. From this experience Maya knew black women is powerful and strong and she wanted to become that, she also wanted the whole world to know that black women and black people in general was more than what most people
thought. After watching her grandmother in the store, she was so determined to write and publish poems about what she saw. This also gave her the idea to start marching for civil rights and be an activist for African American rights. When standing up for African rights she knew she had to be involved so she started marching in some of the most popular civil rights movements. Doing this allowed her to meet many great people such as Martin Luther King and Malcom X. By doing so much for the African American society she was awarded many awards. Some of the most famous awards she has gotten was the Presidential Award of Freedom and the NAACP award. Also when writing poems about her life and civil rights she didn’t know she was going to influence so many people in the world. She also didn’t know she was going to win an abundant of awards for writing about her life. Some of these awards was the Marian Anderson Award, the Quill Award, and the Lifetime Achievement Award. Throughout my lifespan I have read and heard about many people that do many different things and have many different backgrounds, but when hearing about Maya Angelou I am so inspired because of the fact that I feel as though she was a strong woman even though she has been through many obstacles that most of us wish to never face. When reading her poems and books I am inspired and moved by the challenges she has gotten through. Maya Angelou has not only changed me, but millions of other people in the world. She has helped many people find their true identity through her poems, memoirs, and autobiography. She has affected me because she has shown me that black women are definitely strong and powerful. She has also given me a new way of thinking. I now believe that anything is possible no matter what it is and what you have been through.