- In the 1930s and 1940s, the Civil Rights Movements for African-Americans became more noticeable and more people helped in the push for rights.
2. Maya Angelou: Biography
- Maya Angelou was born in St. Louis in 1928.
- She was raised by her grandmother in Arkansas until she graduated from eighth grade. Then she joined her mother in San Francisco.
- In Arkansas, Maya Angelou experienced the brutality of racial discrimination and she absorbed the faith and values of traditional African-American families, communities, and culture.
- As a teenager, her love for arts won her a scholarship to study dance and drama at San Francisco's Labor School.
- At 16, she gave birth to a son, Guy after which she toured Europe and Africa in the musical Porgy and Bess.
- In the 1960s when Maya Angelou returned to New York City, she joined the Harlem Writers Guild and became involved in black activism.
- She then spent several years in Ghana and editor of the African Review, where she began to take her life, her activism, and her writing more seriously.
3. Racism: What is it? How has it occurred in the U.S.?
-Racism is prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on such a belief.
- Racism has been an issue in the United States since colonial times. There had been racism in this country against Native Americans, African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Latin-Americans, American-Jews, and other immigrant groups.
4. Maya Angelou: Works & Publications
- By the late 1950s, she had become committed to writing and to working in the Civil Rights Movement.
- For her outstanding contributions to American literature, she has received many honorary degrees and the applause of the whole nation on January 20, 1993, when she delivered her poem, "On the Pulse of Morning," at President Clinton's inauguration.
- Maya Angelou is best known for autobiographical books: All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986), The Heart of a Woman (1981), Singin' and Swimin' and Getting Merry Like Christmas (1976), Gather Together in My Name (1974), and I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings (1969), which was nominated for the National Book Award.
5. Racism: Where does it still exist in the U.S.?
- Racism is not prevalent or acceptable as it once was, but it still exists. There's much more awareness now and better education.
- The Civil Rights Movement ended the Jim Crow Laws and basically made racism illegal.
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