Maya Angelou, the author of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, and many other critically acclaimed novels, and poetry has passed away in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She was 86.
Maya Angelou was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1928 and she was a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, and raising a child as a single mother. She would later change the world with her singing, dancing, performing, and writing.
Her books center on themes such as racism, identity, family, and travel. Angelou is best known for her autobiographies, but she is also an established poet
She turned her attention to writing and the civil rights movement in the 1960s. She was close with Martin Luther King, Jr and was devastated that he was assassinated on her 40th birthday.
She met Oprah Winfrey in the 1970s, just as Winfrey was coming up as a young television anchor. Recently, she became a mentor to Winfrey and Oprah was quoted saying that Angelou was a “mother-sister-friend.”
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