Maya
Angelou, was born in 1928, in St. Louis Missouri, and raised in Stamps Arkansas
by her grandmother, after her parents dissolved their relationship. The name,
Maya Angelou, was a consolidation of her childhood nickname and a shortened
form of her married name. Maya Angelou not only scripted her name, she scripted
a successful life as a multi-talented, dancer, performer, director and world
famous author.
During the
course of Maya Angelou’s self-made life, she became a civil rights activist and
close friend of Martin Luther King, and James Baldwin, all during the early
1960’s; later becoming a friend-mentor
to one of the greatest personages of our century, Oprah Winfrey.
The
autobiographical memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird sings, was the first of many
memoirs. Mom and Me was the last. The story of the relationship forged between
the two powerhouse women, Maya Angelou and her mother Vivian Baxter, covers
several decades, from the racially segregated and tumultuous years in The
South, to the California years spent with her mother as a young teenager.
The power of
Maya Angelou’s mother’s influence upon her life journey was not completely
realized by the author until after her mother’s death. As is the case with most
of us, it is only after the years of life experience that our personal introspection
can match our external analysis of the world we inhabit; therefore, Mom and Me
was written as the last autobiographical book of the great author.
It is
through the pages of Mom and Me that we discover the subtleties of life created
by the strain between the dominant white culture and black subculture that
fueled the strong determination to not only merely survive , but thrive, by
Vivian Baxter. In a short excerpt of Mom and Me, Maya Angelou’s mother
encouraged her to persevere when faced with rejection based on race, and when
Maya succeeded in becoming the first female and first black person to secure
the job, Maya’s mother asked her what she had learned by her unrelenting
determination:
Angelou gave
the simple answer which was that she learned she was not afraid to work, and
that was “about all”, at which her mother corrected her by pointing out the
deeper lesson.
“No, you
learned that you have power”.
The
awareness of personal power was perhaps one of the greatest gifts bestowed upon
Angelou by her mother. The acutely attuned sense of self-perception, and the
strong inner drive that was forged by Angelou’s mother and grandmother, was
transferred to Angelou during her formative years. The strength, resilience, fearlessness,
and courage of Maya Angelou became the trademark character traits that defined her
as a public figure, and served her for a lifetime. It was Angelou’s mother,
Vivian who moved her to think ‘large thoughts’ and to dream big. Without
Vivian, there would not have been a Maya.
In order to
fully appreciate the journey of Maya Angelou, you must read Mom and Me, because it is more than the
last memoir of Maya Angelou, it is a window into the development of a cultural
phenomenon. The ultimate lesson is the positive force of parent upon child is
never to be underestimated.
