Survivor Stories: Maya Angelou

Photo credits: Billboard

In Stamps, Arkansas, in 1931, a Black girl named Maya Angelou (born Marguerite Johnson) survived a childhood of trauma, racism, and silence. Her autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, attests to both her pain and her strength. Through her pain and subsequent healing, Angelou’s life became a testament to courage and literary genius.

Even before adolescence, Angelou was familiar with instability and rejection. At three years old, she and her brother Bailey were sent alone by train to live with their grandmother. Being in the segregated South provided daily exposure to inequality and degradation. As a child, Angelou witnessed firsthand the day-to-day degradations as a result of racism and systemic efforts to erase Black identity.

At eight, Angelou suffered one of the most horrific traumas of her life: she was sexually abused by her mother’s boyfriend. After telling relatives, the abuser was briefly jailed but then set free. He was killed a few days afterward, most likely by Angelou’s relatives. Assuming that her voice had caused his death, Angelou essentially stopped speaking altogether and did not speak for nearly five years.

She later remembered, “I thought, my voice killed him; I killed that man because I said his name. And then I thought I would never speak again, because my voice would kill anyone.” During this period, Angelou devoured literature, memorizing poetry, reading Black authors like Paul Laurence Dunbar, and developing a fierce love of language. It was during this silence that she built the foundations of her future writing career.

Angelou’s silence was shattered when a teacher and friend, Mrs. Bertha Flowers, exposed her to the power of spoken poetry. Mrs. Flowers pushed her to read aloud, to find her voice again, and to find strength in words rather than fear. Slowly, Angelou began to speak once more, and in doing so, discovered the redemptive power of language and storytelling.

As a teenager, she continued to struggle with identity, self-worth, and poverty, but intelligence and independence motivated her. At sixteen, she was a single parent after the birth of her only son, Guy Johnson. Despite her difficult circumstances, she diligently worked to provide for him, turning survival into perseverance.

Her ability to transform personal pain into art would go on to define her working life. Angelou’s searing memoir of her youth in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings broke literary tradition, giving voice to the experience of Black womanhood, racism, and trauma. Her story reached millions of individuals, showing how creativity and strength could help one overcome pain.

Maya Angelou became a renowned poet, singer, dancer, and civil rights activist recognized worldwide. But at the center of her legacy is the young girl who endured abandonment, racism, and abuse, but still regained her voice to inspire others. Her life has shown generations that survival is not just endurance, but transformation.

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Jurisview Journal is a student-led blog that publishes biweekly articles about interesting criminal cases. Our aim is to shed light on cases that require justice or further exploration and provide input on controversial legal events. We also publish infographics to help victims or those who wish to educate themselves on legal issues. 

In this series, Survivor Stories, we explore and share the stories of survivors of violence and crime. Through this, we advocate for justice and more attention to victims such as the survivors we feature.