People
Maya Angelou (1928-2014) and the freedom movement
The documented civil rights work of poet Maya Angelou, from SCLC's New York office in 1960 to Ghana and the 1993 inauguration, and what links her to Hamer's era.
In short
Maya Angelou (April 4, 1928 - May 28, 2014) was a poet, memoirist and performer. In 1960 she staged the Cabaret for Freedom benefit for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and became SCLC's northern coordinator in New York. She lived in Ghana in the early 1960s, where she knew Malcolm X, and later wrote I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969). We have found no documented collaboration between Angelou and Fannie Lou Hamer; they belonged to the same generation of the Black freedom movement but worked in different places.
- Born
- April 4, 1928, St. Louis, Missouri
- Died
- May 28, 2014, Winston-Salem, North Carolina
- SCLC
- Northern coordinator, New York, from 1960
- Abroad
- Egypt and Ghana, early 1960s
- Best-known book
- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969)
- Honors
- Inaugural poem 1993; Presidential Medal of Freedom 2011
What did Maya Angelou do in the civil rights movement?
In 1960 Angelou staged Cabaret for Freedom, a revue that raised money for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and she then accepted the job of northern coordinator for SCLC's New York office. The King Institute at Stanford says she worked with SCLC for about six months.
What did she do abroad?
In the early 1960s she lived in Cairo and then in Accra, Ghana, where she worked as a writer and teacher and came to know Malcolm X. She returned to the United States in 1965 intending to help him build his new Organization of Afro-American Unity, shortly before he was killed. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, her fortieth birthday.
How is she remembered?
Her 1969 memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, made her one of the best-known American writers, and in 1993 she read her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" at President Bill Clinton's inauguration. President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011. She died on May 28, 2014, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
What connects her to Fannie Lou Hamer?
They were near contemporaries in the same freedom movement, but their work ran on separate tracks, and we have not found a documented collaboration. Angelou worked in New York, Africa and the arts; Hamer organized in the Mississippi Delta. This address was used by an earlier site on this domain for a page about Angelou, and we kept it so that links still work. For writers who did write about Hamer, see books, films and plays about Hamer.
Questions readers ask
Did Maya Angelou know Fannie Lou Hamer?
We have not found a reliable record of a meeting or joint work, and we do not claim one. Both are honored as women of the civil rights generation, and both received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Angelou in 2011 and Hamer posthumously in 2025.
What was Cabaret for Freedom?
A 1960 revue in New York that Angelou staged to raise money for Martin Luther King Jr.'s Southern Christian Leadership Conference. The King Institute at Stanford notes that Sidney Poitier, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee and Lorraine Hansberry attended opening night.
Sources
- Maya AngelouPoetry Foundation
- Maya AngelouEncyclopaedia Britannica
- Angelou, MayaMartin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, Stanford University
We checked every date and name on this page against the sources above. If you find an error, write to contact@fannielouhamer.info.
Continue in the archive
- Teach & rememberBooks and filmsA reading and viewing list on Fannie Lou Hamer: biographies, her collected speeches, children's books, the 2022 documentary, plays and music made in her honor.
- Her lifeLegacy and honorsHow Fannie Lou Hamer is remembered, from the words on her headstone to the Voting Rights Act renewal, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and places named for her.
- PeoplePeople of the movementSourced profiles of Mississippi organizers who worked alongside Fannie Lou Hamer, including Amzie Moore, Annie Devine, Victoria Gray Adams and Lawrence Guyot.
- MovementPresidents and HamerWhat U.S. presidents have said and done about Fannie Lou Hamer, from Johnson's 1964 press conference to Obama's Selma speech and Biden's 2025 Medal of Freedom.