Marguerite Johnson (Maya Angelou)

Marguerite Johnson, perhaps better known as author Maya Angelou, is the primary character in the book, and the teller of her story. Maya has a rough life, bouncing between cities and parents, being molested at a very early age, becoming pregnant at an early age. Her mother and father originally send her to live with grandparents, as they don't have time in their busy lives to care for the children. She is raised until age seven by her father's mother who is a kind, strong black woman living in the South. Momma, as she is known, runs the only Black operated store in the small Southern town, and earns marginal respect for it, even as the whites discriminate against her. When her mother sends for her, Maya and her brother are forced to move to St. Louis, where her mother is a nightclub singer, living...