Maya Angelou 5

Maya Angelou is a phenomenal woman. She was born into a devastating decade, that suffered numerous tragedies. Not only had society shaped her as a woman, she has also shaped our society and influenced many lives. She is still living today, yet I believe her legend will never die. Furthermore I will share with you what motivated her and some of her gratifying experiences. How she was effected by society, and what she did about it. Also how the time period she was born into made her the extraordinary woman she is today. Maya Angelou was born on April 4, 1928, a year before the crash of 29 (the stock market crash). To get a sense of what exactly Maya was born into, I will explain what exactly this meant. This was the start of the depression, a nation wide economic tragedy that lasted until the late 1930’s. The effects varied, but everyone suffered. By 1933, nearly one quarter of the workforce had been laid off. By 1934, two fifths of home owners lost their houses, and New York listed 100 deaths from starvation. About 37% of American had irregular eating habits, and generally did not get three meals a day. Only about 8% were getting only one meal a day, and this was not stolid food. Day after day, people lived off of bread, potatoes, macaroni, spaghetti, canned soups and thin gravy. Meat and vegetables were rarely served. A common response, often heard, when children were asked if they had eaten today was “No, this is my sisters’ day to eat.” In 1937 the Ohio river burst it’s banks and killed over 250 people and ruined many livelihoods. Between 1933 and 1934 huge dust storms swept through country after country picking up tons of patched soil, 514,000 farm workers lost there jobs because of this. Stamps, Arkansas slowly came into the depression, and slowly came out of it. They did not even know of the depression until the early 30’s Maya Angelou born April 4, 1928, was born in St. Louis, MO. She was born as Marguerite, but