15 Most Interesting Facts About Maya Angelou You May Not Have Known

Her Real Name Was Not Maya Angelou Maya Angelou was named Marguerite Ann Johnson at birth. After divorcing her first husband, Tosh Angelos, in 1954, she began a nightclub career in San Francisco and dropped her birth name, taking on the name Maya Angelou. It was her brother, Bailey, who nicknamed her “Maya.” She Was Mute For 5 Years After Sexual Abuse When she was just 8, Angelou was sexually abused and raped by her mother’s boyfriend, Freeman, in St. Louis. Angelou told her brother Bailey and he told the family. Freeman was arrested, but served only one day in jail for his brutality. Four days after his release, he was found dead. There were rumors that Angelou’s uncles sought revenge. Following the incident, Angelou became mute for almost five years. In "I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings," her first autobiography, she wrote, "I thought, my voice killed him; I killed that man, because I told his name. And then I thought I would never speak again, because my voice would kill anyone." The literary icon gave her high school teacher Bertha Flowers credit for helping her to speak again after half a decade of silence. She Temporarily Dropped Out of High School to Work In 1941 Maya Angelou won a scholarship to study dance and drama at San Francisco’s Labor School, but she dropped out of the high school to become San Francisco’s first African-American female cable car conductor. She Returned to High School and Graduated While Pregnant After giving high school another try, Angelou became pregnant and graduated a few weeks before giving birth to her only child, Guy Johnson. She Received Honorary Doctorates From 30 Schools Angelou never attended college, but she received over 30 honorary doctoral degrees from universities all over the world. She preferred that folks outside her intimate circle of friends and family refer to her as “Dr. Angelou.” She Supported Cuban Leader Fidel Castro In the early 1960s, Angelou championed Fidel Castro's rise to power in Cuba. Her first published story appeared in the Cuban periodical Revolucion. In her 1981 book "The Heart of a Woman," Angelou wrote, “Of course, Castro never had called himself white, so he was OK from the git. Anyhow, America hated Russians, and as Black people often said, ‘Wasn’t no Communist country that put my grandpappa in slavery. Wasn’t no Communist lynched my poppa or raped my mamma.’” She Partnered With Malcolm X to Fight For Black People. In 1964, at the height of the Civil Rights Movement, Angelou, who was living in Accra, Ghana, met Malcolm X while he was visiting there. She decided to accompany Malcolm back to the United States to help him build his expanding Organization of Afro-American Unity. Malcolm was assassinated in 1965 shortly after her arrival. She was a leader in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference SCLC, an organization co-founded by Martin Luther King Jr. that advocated nonviolence, was instrumental in arranging protests and voter registration drives during the Civil Rights Movement. Before becoming an SCLC member, Angelou arranged the Cabaret for Freedom, a five-week show that raised money for the organization. After the success of the musical revue, she was asked to become the Northern coordinator of the SCLC, and was instrumental in fundraising and promoting the organization’s mission. King called upon Angelou to spearhead a march in 1968, however, it was postponed after King was assassinated on April 4, the day of her 40th birthday. Angelou chose not to celebrate her birthday for several years after King's death as the memories were too painful for her. She Uncovered Her True African Roots According to the New World Encyclopedia, DNA tests taken in 2008 indicated that Angelou was descended from the Mende people of Sierra Leone in West Africa. She Relocated to Africa During the time of decolonization, Angelou made the decision in 1961 to relocate to Cairo, Egypt, where she became an associate editor for a weekly English-language newspaper. The following year, Angelou moved to Accra, Ghana, where she lived for five years while her son Guy, then a college student, recuperated from a very serious auto accident. While in Accra, Angelou worked as an administrator at the University of Ghana and freelanced for various publications there. She Married Twice to White Men Despite all the racial taboos of the time, Angelou married a Greek sailor named Enistasious ”Tosh” Angelos in 1951, but after four years, they divorced. In 1973, Angelou married Welsh carpenter Paul du Feu, an ex-husband of Australian feminist activist Germaine Greer. They were married in San Francisco. Although Angelou described their marriage as "made in heaven" in her second book of essays Even the Stars Look Lonesome (1997), she and du Feu divorced in 1981. She had a relationship with South African civil rights activist and attorney Vusumzi Make in 1961, but never formally married him. She Was a Calypso Singer and Dancer In 1957, Angelou recorded a calypso album, “Miss Calypso.” Two years later, she performed in an off-Broadway review that inspired the 1957 film “Calypso Heat Wave,” where she sang her own compositions. During that time, while performing in San Francisco nightclubs as a calypso singer and dancer, she met and teamed up with dance legend Alvin Ailey to form the modern dance performing duo “Al and Rita.” The pair never hit it big, so they eventually decided to go their separate ways. She Was 'Disappointed' That Common Used Her Poem in His Rap Song Rapper Common created controversy in 2011 after he featured part of Angelou's poem, "The Dreamer/ Believer" on his song "The Dreamer." Angelou was particularly upset over his use of profanity and his use of the N-word. She told The New York Post that she was "surprised and disappointed" by his use of the word. She Penned Hallmark Greeting Cards and Cookbooks In 2000, Angelou created a successful collection of products for Hallmark, including greeting cards and decorative household items. Her Random House editor disapproved of her decision to lend her words to a line of cards, bookends, and pillows, arguing the venture was too commercial. But as Angelou told USA Today, “If I’m America’s poet, or one of them, then I want to be in people’s hands … people who would never buy a book.” She also wrote cookbooks, such as "Great Food, All Day Long: Cook Splendidly, Eat Smart " and "Hallelujah! The Welcome Table." She Loved Country Music Angelou was an avid country music lover. She listened to Carrie Underwood, Blake Shelton, Montgomery Gentry and Jennifer Nettles from Sugarland. “I’ve been seriously affected by the breakup of Brooks & Dunn,” she told Parade. “They broke up after 20 years and I’ve been seriously offended by that!”

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