Maya Angelou Timeline

(April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014)

Maya Angelou (1928–2014) was an acclaimed American poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist best known for her groundbreaking autobiography 'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.' Over her remarkable life, she worked as a singer, dancer, journalist, professor, and advocate for social justice, becoming one of the most influential voices in American literature. More Less

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Early Life

Maya Angelou born in St. Louis

Apr 4, 1928

Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Annie Johnson on April 4, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri. She would go on to become an American memoirist, essayist, poet, and civil rights activist.

Marries Tosh Angelos

1951

In 1951, Angelou married Tosh Angelos, a Greek electrician, former sailor, and aspiring musician, despite the condemnation of interracial relationships at the time and the disapproval of her mother.

Moves to Accra, Ghana with her son Guy

1962 - 1965

In 1962, Angelou's relationship with Vusumzi Make ended, and she and her son Guy moved to Accra, Ghana, so he could attend college, but he was seriously injured in an automobile accident. Angelou remained in Accra for his recovery and ended up staying there until 1965. Her fifth autobiography, All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986), tells about this time in Ghana.

Marries Paul du Feu; nominated for Tony Award

1973

Angelou married Paul du Feu, a Welsh carpenter and ex-husband of writer Germaine Greer, in San Francisco in 1973. That same year, she was nominated for a Tony Award for her role in Jerome Kilty's play Look Away, though she described herself as "a reluctant actor."

Mother Vivian Baxter dies

1991

Angelou's mother Vivian Baxter died in 1991; she and Angelou's brother Bailey Johnson Jr. were important figures in her life and her books.

Brother Bailey Johnson Jr. dies

2000

Angelou's brother Bailey Johnson Jr. died in 2000 after a series of strokes; he was an important figure in her life and her books.

Image source: Maya Angelou

DNA test and PBS documentary reveal family history

2008

In 2008, a DNA test revealed that 45 percent of Angelou's genetic makeup was from Central African peoples from the Congo-Angola region and 55 percent came from West Africans. A 2008 PBS documentary also found that her maternal great-grandmother, Mary Lee, who had been emancipated after the Civil War, became pregnant by her white former owner, John Savin.

Career and Artistry

Marriage ends; dances professionally in San Francisco

1954

After Angelou's marriage ended in 1954, she danced professionally in clubs around San Francisco, including the nightclub The Purple Onion, where she sang and danced to calypso music.

Tours Europe with Porgy and Bess

1954 - 1955

During 1954 and 1955, Angelou toured Europe with a production of the opera Porgy and Bess.

Records first album, Miss Calypso

1957

In 1957, riding on the popularity of calypso, Angelou recorded her first album, Miss Calypso, which was reissued as a CD in 1996. She also appeared in an off-Broadway review that inspired the 1957 film Calypso Heat Wave, in which she sang and performed her own compositions.

Image source: Miss Calypso

Meets Martin Luther King Jr. and joins civil rights movement

1960

In 1960, after meeting civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., Angelou became deeply involved in the civil rights movement. She had also joined the crowd cheering for Fidel Castro when he entered the Hotel Theresa in Harlem during the United Nations 15th General Assembly on September 19, 1960.

Performs in Jean Genet's play The Blacks

1961

In 1961, Angelou performed in Jean Genet's play The Blacks, playing the part of the Queen, along with Abbey Lincoln, Roscoe Lee Browne, James Earl Jones, Louis Gossett, Godfrey Cambridge, and Cicely Tyson. Also that year, she met South African freedom fighter Vusumzi Make; they never officially married.

Works with Malcolm X's Organization of Afro-American Unity

1965

In 1965, Angelou returned to the United States to help Malcolm X build a new civil rights organization, the Organization of Afro-American Unity; he was assassinated shortly afterward. Working as a market researcher in Watts, she also witnessed the riots in the summer of 1965.

Image source: Organization of Afro-American Unity

Returns to New York after writing and acting abroad

1967

Angelou acted in and wrote plays and returned to New York in 1967.

Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr

1968

In 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, a devastating loss for Angelou, who had been close to him. As Gillespie states, "If 1968 was a year of great pain, loss, and sadness, it was also the year when America first witnessed the breadth and depth of Maya Angelou's spirit and creative genius."

Image source: Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

Georgia, Georgia becomes first produced screenplay by a Black woman

1972

Released in 1972, Angelou's Georgia, Georgia, produced by a Swedish film company and filmed in Sweden, was the first produced screenplay by a Black woman.

Image source: Georgia (country)

Appears in television mini-series Roots

1977

In 1977, Angelou appeared in a supporting role in the television mini-series Roots. Her successful acting career included roles in numerous plays, films, and television programs.

Image source: Roots (1977 miniseries)

Divorces Paul du Feu and accepts professorship at Wake Forest

1981

In 1981, Angelou and du Feu divorced. That year, she returned to the southern United States because she felt she had to come to terms with her past there and, despite having no bachelor's degree, accepted the lifetime Reynolds Professorship of American Studies at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where she was one of a few full-time African American professors.

Named first Reynolds Professor of American Studies

1982

In 1982, Angelou was named the first Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Directs Moon on a Rainbow Shawl revival in London

1988

As a theater director, in 1988 Angelou undertook a revival of Errol John's play Moon on a Rainbow Shawl at the Almeida Theatre in London.

Image source: Moon on a Rainbow Shawl

Directs Moon on a Rainbow Shawl revival in London

Writes poetry for and acts in Poetic Justice

1993

Angelou wrote the poetry and played a role in the 1993 movie Poetic Justice starring Janet Jackson.

Image source: Poetic Justice (film)

Directs feature film Down in the Delta

1996 - 1998

Angelou achieved her goal of directing a feature film with Down in the Delta, which featured actors such as Alfre Woodard and Wesley Snipes, making her the first African American woman to direct a major motion picture. Also in 1996, she collaborated with R&B artists Ashford & Simpson on seven of the eleven tracks of their album Been Found.

Image source: Down in the Delta

Creates product collection for Hallmark

2000

In 2000, Angelou created a successful collection of products for Hallmark, including greeting cards and decorative household items. That same year, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts.

Campaigns for Hillary Clinton in 2008 primaries

2008

Angelou campaigned for the Democratic Party in the 2008 presidential primaries, giving her public support to Hillary Clinton.

Writing and Autobiographies

Moves to New York to focus on writing

1959

In 1959, Angelou met novelist John Oliver Killens and, at his urging, moved to New York to concentrate on her writing career.

Writes I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

1968

Also in 1968, inspired at a dinner party she attended with James Baldwin, cartoonist Jules Feiffer, and his wife Judy, and challenged by Random House editor Robert Loomis, she wrote her first autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, published in 1969. The book tells of her life up to the age of 17 and brought her international recognition and acclaim, hailing her as a new kind of memoirist, one of the first African American women able to publicly discuss their personal lives.

Image source: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Publishes I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

1969

When I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was published in 1969, Angelou was hailed as a new kind of memoirist. The book brought her international recognition and acclaim and told of her life up to the age of 17. It later appeared third on the American Library Association's list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–2000 and sixth on the ALA's 2000–2009 list.

Publishes All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes

1986

In her fifth autobiography, All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986), Angelou tells about her return to Ghana searching for the past of her tribe.

Image source: All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes

Publishes All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes

Delivers "A Brave and Startling Truth" at the United Nations

Jun 1995

In June 1995, Angelou delivered what Richard Long called her "second 'public' poem", entitled "A Brave and Startling Truth", which commemorated the 50th anniversary of the United Nations.

Completes sixth autobiography, A Song Flung Up to Heaven

2002

More than thirty years after Angelou began writing her life story, she completed her sixth autobiography, A Song Flung Up to Heaven, in 2002.

Image source: A Song Flung Up to Heaven

Publishes Hallelujah! The Welcome Table

2004

Angelou combined her cooking and writing skills in her 2004 book Hallelujah! The Welcome Table, which featured 73 recipes, many of which she learned from her grandmother and mother, accompanied by 28 vignettes. That year she also purchased a "lordly brownstone" in Harlem full of her growing library, artwork, and well-stocked kitchens.

Publishes second cookbook, Great Food, All Day Long

2010

Angelou followed up her first cookbook in 2010 with her second cookbook, Great Food, All Day Long: Cook Splendidly, Eat Smart, which focused on weight loss and portion control.

Publishes seventh autobiography, Mom & Me & Mom

2013

In 2013, at the age of 85, Angelou published the seventh volume of autobiography in her series, Mom & Me & Mom, which focuses on her relationship with her mother. Her final speaking engagement at Wake Forest University was in late 2013.

Image source: Mom & Me & Mom

Honors and Legacy

Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie nominated for Pulitzer Prize

1971

Angelou was a prolific writer of poetry; her volume Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie (1971) was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.

Recites "On the Pulse of Morning" at Clinton's inauguration

Jan 1993

In 1993, Angelou recited her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" at the first inauguration of Bill Clinton, making her the first poet to make an inaugural recitation since Robert Frost at the inauguration of John F. Kennedy in 1961. Bookstores sold more of her books in January 1993 than they did in all of 1992, accounting for a 1,200% increase.

Image source: On the Pulse of Morning

Awarded the Spingarn Medal

1994

Among Angelou's many honors was the Spingarn Medal, awarded in 1994. She also served on two presidential committees and received three Grammys for her spoken-word albums.

Image source: Spingarn Medal

Donates personal papers to Schomburg Center

Oct 1, 2010 - Dec 31, 2010

In late 2010, Angelou donated her personal papers and career memorabilia to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem. They consisted of more than 340 boxes of documents featuring her handwritten notes on yellow legal pads for I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, a 1982 telegram from Coretta Scott King, fan mail, and correspondence from colleagues such as her editor Robert Loomis.

Image source: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture

Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom

2011

In 2011, Angelou was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of her many honors. That year she also served as a consultant for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial and taught her last course at Wake Forest, though she was planning to teach another in late 2014.

Image source: Presidential Medal of Freedom

Received a lifetime achievement award from transportation officials

2014

In 2014, Angelou received a lifetime achievement award from the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials as part of a session billed "Women Who Move the Nation".

Maya Angelou dies at age 86

May 28, 2014

Angelou died on the morning of May 28, 2014, at age 86. On May 29, 2014, Mount Zion Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, of which Angelou had been a member for 30 years, held a public memorial service to honor her.

Angelou featured on American Women quarter

Jan 2022

In 2021, the United States Mint announced that Angelou would be among the first women depicted on the reverse of the quarter as part of the American Women quarters series. The coins were released in January 2022.

Image source: American Women quarters

Key Facts

In 1969, Maya Angelou published 'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,' the first in a series of seven autobiographies, which made literary history as the first nonfiction bestseller by an African American woman.
She was active in the Civil Rights Movement, working alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X during the late 1950s and 1960s.
In 1993, she recited her poem 'On the Pulse of Morning' at President Bill Clinton's inauguration, becoming the first poet since Robert Frost to recite at a presidential inauguration.
Angelou received more than 50 honorary degrees and won three Grammy Awards for her spoken word albums.
In 2011, President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States.

Source

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