She was born Marguerite Anne Johnson on
April 4, 1928, in St. Louis,
Missouri. Her
brother gave her the name Mya Sister when he
was too young to pronounce her name and it
stuck. Eventually, she was best known as
Maya. When Angelou was three years old, her
parents divorced and sent their children to
live in the rural, segregated town of
Stamps,
Arkansas, with their paternal
grandmother, Annie Henderson. During their
teens, they lived with their mother, Vivian
Baxter, in California.
Angelou became a civil-rights activist when
she was just fifteen. She battled racism
with and succeeded in becoming the first
African American streetcar conductor in San
Francisco. She is best known for her
autobiographical story,
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.
It was her first, and remains her most
critically praised work.
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