Maya Angelou gained a great amount of success for an African American woman who grew up in the 1930s and 40s. Her roots in the segregated south contributed towards her drive towards success. She was an important figure in the Civil Rights Movement, having worked alongside other influential people such as Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Along with her work in the Civil Rights Movement, Angelou was a published author with over 30 poems, essays, and books. (Academy of Achievement). As a writer, she earned many awards, including a Grammy, 30 honorary degrees, and nominations for a National Book Award and a Pulitzer Prize (Grossman, Lev). In her lifetime, she served in various ways for different presidents, from being appointed to several
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In her early days, Angelou started off with a financially stable family, for the most part. Her grandmother rented out properties to poor white people and operated a general store. Although her family was well-off for a black family in this time period, Angelou was exposed to people who were “caught in economic enslavement within the general impoverishment of African Americans.” (Koontz, Tom). Although she was raised in a decent economic environment, the financial situation for a black single mother was not extravagant. There was no luxury in her life at that point in time. It was all hard work and motherhood. Angelou was very poor and struggling while she raised her son. She worked two jobs and lived in a very small place (Moore, Lucinda). Between the ages of sixteen and forty, Angelou had gone through many jobs of various capacities. She had been a street conductor, a cook, a waitress, a madam, a prostitute, a dancer, an actress, a playwright, and a calypso singer. This was all before she became an author at age forty (Grossman, Lev). Angelou’s success was obviously never just handed to her, she worked hard for everything to make her way up to great success for the rest of her
In her early days, Angelou started off with a financially stable family, for the most part. Her grandmother rented out properties to poor white people and operated a general store. Although her family was well-off for a black family in this time period, Angelou was exposed to people who were “caught in economic enslavement within the general impoverishment of African Americans.” (Koontz, Tom). Although she was raised in a decent economic environment, the financial situation for a black single mother was not extravagant. There was no luxury in her life at that point in time. It was all hard work and motherhood. Angelou was very poor and struggling while she raised her son. She worked two jobs and lived in a very small place (Moore, Lucinda). Between the ages of sixteen and forty, Angelou had gone through many jobs of various capacities. She had been a street conductor, a cook, a waitress, a madam, a prostitute, a dancer, an actress, a playwright, and a calypso singer. This was all before she became an author at age forty (Grossman, Lev). Angelou’s success was obviously never just handed to her, she worked hard for everything to make her way up to great success for the rest of her