Maya Angelou Timeline

Awards

1970 Chubb Fellowship Award, Yale University

1972 Pulitzer Prize Nomination for Just Give Me A Cool Drink of Water 'Fore I Die

1976 Ladies' Home Journal Award ("Woman of the Year in Communication")

1977 Golden Eagle Award, Afro-American in the Arts

Maya Angelou Timeline

1986 Fulbright Program 40th Anniversary Distinguished Lecturer award

1991 Langston Hughes Medal

1993 Grammy for "Best Spoken Word Album," "On The Pulse of Morning,"

1996 Martin Luther King, Jr. Legacy Association National Award

2008 Becomes the first recipient of Hope for Peace and Justice Voice of Peace award

2006 Receives Mother Teresa Award

1973-2002

1973 Maya Angelou married Paul du Feu and moved with him and her son to Sonoma, California. She then worked on her writing and acting

1981 She divorced Paul du Feu

1974 Published Gather Together in My Name

By: Daynesha Ewing

1981 Published The Heart of a Woman

1984 Met Oprah Winfrey and became her friend and mentor

1993 Maya Angelou reads her poem On the Pulse of Morning at inauguration of President Bill Clinton

1959-1968

1997 Published All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes

1959 Became involved with Civil Rights Activists

1959 At the request of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Maya Angelou became the northern coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

2002 Published A Song Flung Up to Heaven

1960 She met the South African civil rights activist Vusumzi Make and in 1960, the couple and Guy moved, to Cairo, Egypt. In Cairo, Maya Angelou worked as editor of the English language weekly The Arab Observer. She later moved to Ghana

1964 Returned to America hoping to help Malcolm X build his new Organization of African American Unity

1968 Malcolm X is assassinated and Maya began working on her Autobiographical book 'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings' (1970)

1941-1942

1941:Maya and her brother returned to live with her mother in San Francisco where she attended George Washington High School and studied dance and drama on a scholarship at the California Labor School

1952-1958

1942: Teacher Bertha Flowers helped Maya to talk again and encouraged her interest in literature.

1942: She dropped out of school in her teens to become San Francisco's first African American female cable car conductor

1952: She married a Greek sailor named Tosh Angelos but the marriage quickly failed

1952: She began her career as a nightclub singer and during this time took the name Maya Angelou

1943: Maya returned to high school, but became pregnant and graduated a few weeks before giving birth to her son, Guy. She left home to bring up her son as a single mother working as a waitress and cook

1954/5: Toured in a production of Porgy and Bess

1957: Recorded the album called Calypso Lady

Short Bio

Maya Angelou

1958: Developed her skills in writing poetry and moved to New York, where she joined the Harlem Writers Guild

1931-1937

1931: Maya's parents got divorced and they were sent to live with their father's mother Mrs.Annie Henderson aka "Momma" in Stamps, Arkansas

Saint Louis ,

Missouri

Marguerite Ann Johnson

Born: April 4, 1928

Place of Birth:

Saint Louis ,Missouri

Parents: Vivian Baxter and Bailey Johnson Sr

Sibling: Bailey Jr. (gave her the nickname Maya)

Background: Maya was descended from the Mende people of West Africa.

1935: Bailey Sr. took the children to live with their mother again in St.Louis , Missouri.

1937: Maya was sexually abused and raped by her mother's boyfriend, Mr. Freeman. The shock made Maya mute and the children were sent back to live with their grandmother once again.