Born on April 4, 1928, Maya Angelou had a hard childhood. Her parents got divorced  when she was very young. She was a single mother and being a single mother was very hard on her. It was finally in 1949 that she started to find her place in the world when she changed her name to show her Calypso dance performances at the night club where she worked. It was there that she won a scholarship and trained in African dance and modern dance. She formed a group and they traveled all over Europe with an opera production. As she traveled, she studied different languages and became excellent in several of them. During this time, she made her first album, Miss Calypso, and it was a success. In the 1950s, she moved to New York and started to work more on her writing. She heard Dr Martin Luther King speak in 1960 and began organizing different benefits for Civil Rights . In 1961, she began to play a large role in the Civil Rights Movement and is remembered for her work around the country. She later moved to Ghana with her son and worked in the University of Ghana's School of Music and Drama. It was there that she became close friends with Malcolm X. She returned to the US in 1964 to help Malcolm X with a new Civil Rights movement. Shortly after she returned to the US, Malcolm X and Dr King were both assassinated . To deal with the deaths of her friends, she wrote her first book, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, which finally made her famous around the world. The 1970s were some of her most productive years as a writer, poet, as well as a singer. What finally made Maya Angelou well known around the world?
Her friendship with Martin Luther King. The books I know Why the Caged Bird Sings. The books and poems she wrote in the 1970s. Her unbelievable work as a Civil Rights protector.