Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou was born in St. Louis, Missouri. Her parents were Vivian and Bailey Johnson. Her mother was of Trinidadian ancestry. When Maya was just one-year old, her parents weren’t getting along. Vivian blamed the attention she had to pay to her two children. She decided it would be better if Maya and her five-year-old brother were sent to live with their paternal grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas.

Annie Henderson was a kindhearted woman who took good care of her two grandchildren. She was the only mother Maya knew. She had no memory of her mother whatsoever. Ten-year-old Maya was crushed when the decision was made that she and her brother should be reunited with their mother who lived in California. She was surprised when she met her mother for the first time in her memory. Her mother was beautiful and young, high-spirited and full of...