Born in St. Louis, Missouri, on April 4, 1928, as Marguerite Johnson, Maya Angelou witnessed the racist madness and inhumane provisions of Jim Crow segregation laws while growing up in St. Louis and Stamps, Arkansas. Her many autobiographical books recount her life in various stages while touching upon themes of racism, identity, family, and travel. Her first autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings tells of her early years living in St Louis and Stamps. The book recalled the sexual abuse she faced at the hands of her mother’s boyfriend and his subsequent murder supposedly by her uncles, an incident that had put fear in Maya’s mind about the power of words to the extent that she became mute. Despite the violence and other wrongs faced by Maya, the story she tells is of upliftment. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was nominated for the National Book Award. Her subsequent works explored the manner by which race, sex, family, community and cultural memory shape an individual and give them strength, all the while giving an account of the extraordinary life led by Maya. Gather Together in My Name (1974) tells of the time when at seventeen Maya was a young mother, struggling to raise her son. Singin’ and Swingin’ and Gettin’ Merry like Christmas (1976), was the chronicle of her tour in Europe and Africa with the caste of the African American opera Porgy and Bess.