Maya Angelo was born on April 4, 1928. During this time, the Harlem Renaissance was happening, the renaissance was also known as the “New Negro Movement,” at this time many new and good things were staring to happen for the African American community. Angelo was born in St. Louis, Missouri. She lived in Missouri with her parents until she was three, but she and her brother were send to their grandmother’s place because their parents decided to end their marriage.
A tragic experience that happened during her childhood that shaped her life was that she was raped at the age of seven by her mom’s boyfriend. When she told her family this, the man was trailed in court and convicted; however, he only ended up staying I jail for a day and ended up dead a few days later. Angelou thought the death was her fault and that her words caused it and because of this thinking, she became mute for the next six years. Through the six years of Angelou not talking, she began to read and she began to memorize everything she …show more content…
Angelou mainly speaks about her race and gender in many of her poems. The poems speak up about the strength the community has and that they will rise above all even if there are many things trying to push the individuals down. Angelou’s poem “Still I Rise” not only affected Americans, it also affected other parts of the world. Nelson Mandela was moved by it enough that he read it aloud at his presidential inauguration. Angelou had created a movement amongst the black community similar to Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm