Maya Angelou

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Maya Angelou is one of the most influential and talented African American writers of our modern day. Those who read Angelou‘s works should not pass the thought of where her influence came from. Maya Angelou’s work has been heavily affected by the era in which she began to write. The fifties and sixties were a tumultuous time for most African-Americans in the US. The civil-rights movement, led by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the National Urban League, Martin Luther King, Jr., and others, was instrumental in securing legislation, notably the Civil-Rights Acts of 1964 and 1968 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Prohibiting discrimination in public accommodations, schools, employment, and voting for reasons of color, race, religion, or national origin. But all this was gained at a great price, the freedom of many saints who sacrificed for the greater cause, and many years of hard work. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, and others pushed for desegregation and equal rights in the face of strong white opposition, and it sometimes became violent. Many whites protested integration. In 1951, Florida NAACP state secretary Harry T. Moore and his wife, Harriet, were killed Christmas night in a bombing of their house. No arrests were ever made. In 1953, black political leader Lamar D. Smith, 63, was shot to death in front of the Lincoln County Courthouse at Brookhaven, Mississippi, after seeking to qualify blacks to vote. More than twenty people witnessed the shooting, including several blacks, but nobody admitted to having seen anything and no witnesses testified against the three white men charged with the murder. In 1954, black minister George W. Lee was killed at Belzoni, Mississippi, after a week of terror during which whites had vandalized blacks’ property. The blacks had refused to send their children to racially segregated schools, the whites had retaliated by refusing credit to blacks at local stores, and Lee had campaigned for black voting rights. In 1956, Southern congress... ... middle of paper ... ...rientation span the lines of race and class. Passionate and exuberant, Angelou is an ambassador to people worldwide, sharing lessons on the human spirit, and what each of us can dream about, strive toward, fail at, endure and still survive.” (Miller,1982) She is an advocate for the betterment and education of all, encouraging us to surpass our potential, both as individuals and as communities of people. Through her unselfish gifts of poetry, story and song, Maya Angelou continues to demonstrate what it means to be a truly Phenomenal Woman. Works Cited Angelou, Maya. And Still I Rise, A Book of Poems by Maya Angelou. 3. 1978 Casey, Ellen Miller:1982. in a review "The Heart of a Women." Best Sellers January, 1982: 376-77. Lisandrelli, Elaine Slivinski:1996, Maya Angelou; More Than a Poet. Springfield, NJ Loos, Pamela:2000, Maya Angelou. Introduction by James Scott Brady. Philadelphia: Chelsea House. Pettit, Jayne:1996, Maya Angelou; Journey of the Heart. New York: Lodestar, 1996. Ages 9-12 Based in part on her autobiography Reilly, Charlie :1994,"Maya Angelou Interviews Amiri Baraka." Conversations with Amiri Baraka. Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 1994. 261-66.

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