Maya Angelou, the 86 year old author of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, died at home in North Carolina, according to her agent.
Just a few days ago Angelou had cancelled an appearance where she was to be honoured at the Major League Baseball Beacon Awards luncheon in Houston.
Popularly known as Dr Angelou, she was also known for her civil rights work, as well as her literary offerings and was also a singer and dancer.
Born April 4, 1928, in St Louis, Missouri was raised up between St Louis and the then-racially-segregated Stamps, Arkansas.
Maya and Obama
At the age of 14 she became a school drop out and went on to become San Francisco’s first female African American cable car conductor.
Determined Angelou later returned and finished her education and became a mother weeks after graduating. She was 17.
The years that followed led her to Africa: first Egypt, where she served as the editor of the weekly publication The Arab Observer, and then Ghana where she taught at the University of Ghana’s School of Music and Drama, worked as feature editor for The African Review and wrote for The Ghanaian Times.
During her time in Ghana, she met civil rights campaigner Malcolm X, and in 1964, Angelou returned to the US to assist him in building his newly founded Organization of African American Unity.
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