Maya Angelou awarded by US baseball league

Insight

The spirit of Maya Angelou and her legacy were heard loud and clear at a Major League Baseball event in Houston that paid tribute to those who advanced the civil rights movement in America.

Angelou’s acclaimed, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” published in 1969 recounts her rough upbringing as a child raised in poverty, including the trauma of being raped at age 7.

In 1960 she worked for Martin Luther King Jr.’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference, then within a year, chose to follow a South African freedom fighter, Vusumzi Make, to Cairo, where she worked as a journalist.

Angelou found extraordinary success with a renewed focus on the arts. She published poetry, wrote for television and films, acted and even directed a feature film.

In 1993, Angelou read her poem “On the Pulse of Morning” at the inauguration of U.S. President Bill Clinton, making her both the first woman-and the first African American to read poetry at such a ceremony. In 2010, Barack Obama awarded her the nation’s highest civilian award the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

The celebrated author received more than 50 honorary degrees over the years. Her achievements were many, and she was to pick up another the “Beacon of Life” award just two days before she died.

CCTV’s Ginger Vaughn reports from Houston.

Maya Angelou is awarded by US baseball league

The spirit of Maya Angelou and her legacy were heard loud and clear at a Major League Baseball event in Houston that paid tribute to those who advanced the civil rights movement in America.

 

The world honors an icon, as legendary poet and activist Maya Angelou is memorialized. Comedian and civil right’s activist Dick Gregory joined CCTV America for reflections on the poet’s life.

Dick Gregory reflects on Maya Angelou's Life

The world honors an icon, as legendary poet and activist Maya Angelou is memorialized. Comedian and civil right's activist Dick Gregory joined CCTV America for reflections on the poet's life.