Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Ann Johnson on April 4, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri. Her parents divorced when she was three years old, and she and her four-year-old brother Bailey were sent to live with their paternal grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas. The children were eventually reunited with their mother in San Francisco, but Angelou returned to Stamps to live with her grandmother again as a teenager. Her only child, Guy Johnson, was born in 1944.

Angelou began her professional career as a singer, dancer, and actor. She performed in plays and muscials on and off-Broadway, and she traveled widely, touring Europe and Africa in the cast of Porgy and Bess. She was also active in the Civil Rights Movement.

In 1969 she published I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, the first of her autobiographical works, for which she is best known. Angelou went on to publish more than 30 books of memoirs, as well as many volumes of poetry. In 1993 she read her poem  "On the Pulse of Morning" at the inauguration ceremony for President Bill Clinton.

Angelou continued to be active in the performing arts throughout her career, as a playwright, screenwriter, producer, and presenter for stage, television, and film projects. In 1972 her screenplay Georgia, Georgia became the first feature film written by an African American woman. She was chosen to participate in the American Film Institute's Directing Workshop for Women in 1974, and in 1975 she became the first Black woman member of the Directors Guild of America.

Angelou first visited Wake Forest as a visiting lecturer in 1973. In 1982 she was appointed to the first Z. Smith Reynolds chaired professorship in American Studies, a position she held until her death. She taught seminar classes for Wake Forest students, directed a production of Macbeth, and gave many lectures on campus and in the Winston-Salem area. She donated an extensive archive of her papers and other materials relating to her career in the performing arts to ZSR Special Collections & Archives in 2011. Angelou passed away at her home in Winston Salem on May 28, 2014, at the age of 86.