April 4, 2018

Google has honoured Maya Angelou, late American writer, poet and civil rights activist with a beautiful doodle on her posthumous birthday at 90 on Wednesday.

Angelou, author of “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” touched the lives of millions around the globe through her teachings, her writings, her voice, and her actions.

Angelou once said: “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

The American writer, poet and civil rights activist touched the lives of millions around the globe through her teachings, her writings, her voice, and her actions.

She was born Marguerite Annie Johnson on April 4, 1928, in Missouri and raised in rural Arkansas.

Her life was blighted by tragedy aged just seven when a sexual assault rendered her mute for five years.

During that dark time, books and poetry became her solace and constant companions, eventually helping her find her voice again.

Angelou provided eloquent commentary on race, gender and living life to its fullest in writing which brought her wide acclaim.

She wrote more than 30 books and was a Grammy winner for three spoken-word albums.

Her memoir, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” was published in 1969, and she went on to write a further six autobiographies as well as many books of poetry.

She worked on civil rights issues with leaders ranging from Martin Luther King, Jr. and John F. Kennedy to Barack Obama and even became the first African-American woman to write a produced screenplay, “Georgia, Georgia”, in 1972.

Angelou read the poem “On the Pulse of Morning” at the 1993 inauguration of President Bill Clinton, and was honored in 2011 by Barack Obama with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

She lived in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where she was a professor of American studies at Wake Forest University.
Angelou died at her home on May 28, 2014, aged 86.