Maya Angelou, also known as Marguerite Johnson was born on April 4, 1928 by Bailey and Vivian Johnson. Bailey was a naval dietitian and door man and Vivian was a realtor and nurse. She was born in St. Louis, but grew up in a segregated, rural, Stamps, Arkansas. Angelou was very unfortunate because of a young childbirth at sixteen, producing Guy Johnson. At quite a young age she married Tosh Angelou, a South African freedom fighter, but the couple divorced early on in 1952. She then went on to marry Paul De Feu in December of 1973 but they also divorced.

Maya Angelou is credited for much of her work today, but as she was starting out it wasn't that easy. While in her early twenties, she had already tried the roles of being a Creole cook, cocktail waitress, streetcar conductor, dancer and single mother. She moved to Cairo with...