Maya Angelou, a poet, writer, and civil rights activist. She was born on April 4, 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri as Marguerite Annie Johnson. Her childhood was very difficult. Her parents split when she was very young. Her and her older brother, Bailey were sent to live with their grandmother in Arkansas. She had to endure racial discrimination. One day while visiting her mother, her mother’s boyfriend raped her. She was so traumatized by the incident that she became mute. Maya moved to San Francisco, California during World War II. She became the first black, female cable car conductor. In 1944, at the age of 16, she gave birth to a son, who she named Guy Johnson. Respectively, her son was the result of a short lived high school relationship.
