1. Her real name wasn’t actually Maya Angelou
Born Marguerite Annie Johnson in St Louis, Missouri, in 1928, Angelou was known by many other names, including Rita, Reet, My, Sister, Sugar and Miss Johnson. But it was Maya, the nickname her older brother gave her, that eventually stuck. She took the surname Angelou, a version of her Greek American ex-husband’s name, while working at San Francisco’s Purple Onion club in the 1950s. The marriage may not have lasted but the name did, staying with her until her death in 2014.
Maya wrote unashamedly about her troubled past
2. She was the first black woman to work as a conductor on San Francisco’s cable cars
At 16, Angelou decided she wanted to be a cable car conductor, but when she went to ask for a job, she was refused an application form. Her mother told her to sit in the office reading Russian literature every day until they changed their minds. Angelou recalled doing this for two weeks, enduring mockery and racist insults but unable to go home because she didn’t want to disappoint her mother. Eventually, this persistence won her the job.
3. When Angelou gave birth to a son at 17, her mother delivered him
Angelou’s mother, Vivian Baxter, was absent during much of her early childhood. But they grew closer as she got older, and when Angelou became unexpectely pregnant at 16 she was very supportive. Angelou remembered, “She asked me, ‘Do you love the boy?’ I said no. ‘Does he love you?’ I said no. ‘Well, there’s no point in ruining three lives. We’re going to have us a baby.’” When her son was born, Baxter – a trained nurse – delivered him, holding her daughter’s hand and telling jokes to help her through the labour.
