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Marguerite Annie Johnson was born in St. Louis on April 4, 1928
Story of Marguerite Annie Johnson
Marguerite Annie Johnson
Her parents divorced when she was three, and she and her brother were sent to live with their grandmother in Arkansas. She was sexually assaulted when she was eight, and after naming the man, did not speak a word for the following five years.
She moved to California and became the first black female streetcar operator, and gave birth to a boy at seventeen. She befriended Alvin Ailey, and the two starred in a modern dance act called "Al and Rita".
In the early 1960s, she began her writing career in earnest. She moved to New York, and became politically engaged in the civil rights movement. She became very close friends with civil rights voices and leaders, James Baldwin, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King Jr. (who was assassinated on this day).
Maya Angelou is remembered mostly for her prose (having written seven autobiographies), though her prolific poetry-writing isn't to be discounted.
|| "History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unloved. However, if faced with courage, need not be lived again." ||
She moved to California and became the first black female streetcar operator, and gave birth to a boy at seventeen. She befriended Alvin Ailey, and the two starred in a modern dance act called "Al and Rita".
In the early 1960s, she began her writing career in earnest. She moved to New York, and became politically engaged in the civil rights movement. She became very close friends with civil rights voices and leaders, James Baldwin, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King Jr. (who was assassinated on this day).
Maya Angelou is remembered mostly for her prose (having written seven autobiographies), though her prolific poetry-writing isn't to be discounted.
|| "History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unloved. However, if faced with courage, need not be lived again." ||
St. Louis, MO
April 4, 1928
post by Chanez Baali
project: The Glass Files #onthisday via Instagram
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