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Born in St. Louis Missouri. At young age went to live with grandma due to her parents unstable marriage -
Went to live with her mother at age seven and was raped by her mother's boyfriend. She became mute for 6 years, and went back to stay with her grandma in Arkansas -
Prior to WWII, she moved back with her mother in Oakland. Attended George Washington and dance and drama courses at the California Labor School -
During the war at age 15, she applied for jobs, posting as a 19-year-old, and was the 1st African American woman to work as a streetcar conductor, in San Fransico. -
Graduated from Mission High School in summer of 1944, and soon gave birth to her only child Clyde Bailey Johnson -
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Throughout the 1950s she performed as a dancer and singer
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Divorced her husband in 1952
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In 1959 she joined the Harlem Writers Guild, which supported the publication of black writers. She was also involved in the civil rights movement and was the coordinator of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. -
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings was published -
1971 wrote the Pulitzer Prize-nominated Just Give me a Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie -
1972 1st African American woman to have screen play turned into a film(Georgia Georgia). -
Tony nomination in 1973 for role in Look Away -
Played Kunta Kinte’s grandmother in Roots in 1977 -
1981 was offered the Reynolds Professorship of American Studies by Wake Forest University -
Grammy awarded poem “On the Pulse of the Morning” was delivered at President Clintons inauguration in 1993 -
Grammy award for spoken album -
Was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 2000 by President Clinton’ -
Grammy Award for spoken Album -
In 2010 President Obama awarded Angelou the Presidential Medal of Freedom -
2012 was a member of the inagural class inducted into the Wake Forest University Hall of Fame -
In 2013 received the National Book Foundation’s Literarian Award -
She died on May 28, 2014. Leaving behind a great legacy