Maya Angelou Accomplishments

Maya Angelou has been an influential woman throughout her life; she left her mark in history and literature, and she celebrated the experience of being black in the US. The most breathtaking of all her achievements is the construction of her own personality. As she stated once, “my mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style”. Remembering her, it is important to highlight her commitment with equality; it was a fight not only for her own life, for women and for Afro-American people, but also for peace and justice all over the world.
Many people inspired Maya to write, taught her and influenced her writings and her life. She started writing her first book I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, when she was around 40 years old. She was on tour around Europe when she met the writer James Baldwin in Paris, and he convinced Maya to write her autobiography, after hearing stories about her childhood.
She returned back to the US in order to support Malcolm X’s initiative of the Organization of African American Unity, but shortly after her arrival Malcolm X was assassinated. After this tragedy, the assassination of her friend Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 was devastating for her, and this was the moment was when she started to write.

Flowers established the basis for Maya’s appreciation of the poetic word, it was her mother Vivian Baxter who drove Angelou into womanhood and maturity. Angelou not only loved her mother's beauty but also loved the way her mother carried herself in society. Vivian Baxter taught Angelou values that were both feminine and strong. She guided her daughter through motherhood: a time that was crucial for Angelou when she was pregnant as an unwed mother. “My mother’s beauty literally assailed me. Her smile widened her mouth beyond her cheeks, beyond her years, and seemingly through the walls to the street outside.”(59) Her mother, she said, was her