Poet, Memoirist & Civil Rights Activist · American · b. April 4, 1928 · d. May 28, 2014
Maya Angelou (born Marguerite Annie Johnson) was an American memoirist, poet, and civil rights activist. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and is credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning over 50 years. Her 1969 memoir *I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings* made literary history as the first nonfiction bestseller by an African American woman. She received dozens of awards and more than 50 honorary degrees, recited her poem 'On the Pulse of Morning' at President Bill Clinton's 1993 inauguration, and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2010.
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