Maya Angelou is an unprecedented renaissance woman who is recognized as one of the great voices of contemporary literature. She is an educator, historian, multi-lingual, mother, actress, playwright, civil-rights activist, producer, director, and is best known for her works of poetry and her best-selling series of autobiographies. She was born into a decade where discrimination and segregation ruled and where African-Americans were the target of all of this devastation. Not only had society shaped her …showed first 75 words of 1585 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1585 total…she was also San Francisco’s first black woman conductor. Maya now spends her time informing others about her knowledge of prejudices, and teaches students to stand up for their rights. She is a professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University in North Carolina. She also educates about courage, perseverance, self-acceptance, and self-actualization. Maya Angelou helps African-American women to speak out against prejudices and is definitely a role model to many young black women.