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She was born in St. Louis Missouri to her parents, Bailey and Vivian Johnson.
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Maya's parents were divorced. She and her brother, Bailey Jr., moved in with her Grandmother and Uncle in Stamps, Arkansas.
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Maya and Bailey Jr. were picked up by their father and sent to live with their mother and her boyfriend in St. Louis.
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Maya was sexually abused by her mother's boyfriend, Mr. Freeman. After a court hearing that proved Mr. Freeman innocent, he was beat to death supposedly by Maya's uncles. These two incidents made Maya mute for nearly 5 years and she and her brother were sent to live with her Grandmother once again.
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Maya met Ms. Bertha Flowers, a women who encouraged her to speak and introduced her to literature.
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Maya and Bailey Jr. moved to San Francisco to live with their mother once again. Maya studied dance and eventually auditioned for a professional theatre.
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Maya was in high school and doing very well however she was forced to drop out when she had a son, Guy, at the age of 16.
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Maya auditioned for a role in Porgy and Bes and won. She traveled to 22 countries in just one year.
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Maya recorded her first and only album titled Miss Calypso. She created this album at the height of the Calypso movement.
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She moved to New York and became friends with prominent Harlem writers. She joined the writers and became a part of the Civil Rights Movement.
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Maya met Martin Luther King Jr. after being moved by one of his speeches she had heard. At the request of the King himself, she became the Northern Coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. They were great friends.
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She moved to Egypt with her boyfriend at the time and edited for the Arab Observer.
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Maya moved back to America and began writing her multivolume biography starting with "I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings".
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Maya was appointed Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem.
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Maya met Oprah Winfrey and they became great friends.
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Maya won the Mother Teresa award.
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Maya Angelou died on May 28, 2014 at her home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She had been suffering from heart issues for a little while.
