What is the title of Maya Angelou's famous 1969 memoir?

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Maya Angelou Quiz: Poems, Memoirs and a Remarkable Life

This Maya Angelou quiz follows the poet and memoirist from St. Louis to I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Still I Rise, Phenomenal Woman, her civil rights work with Martin Luther King Jr., a poem for Bill Clinton's inauguration and her image on a U.S. quarter.

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🎯 Daily Trivia Challenge • 🧠 10 Questions • ⏱️ 90 Seconds

Question 1 / 10 Time: 90s

Books
What is the title of Maya Angelou's famous 1969 memoir?
Biography
What was Maya Angelou's birth name?
Poems
Which poem by Angelou includes the line "You may shoot me with your words"?
Inaugurations
At whose 1993 presidential inauguration did Angelou read On the Pulse of Morning?
Early Jobs
As a teenager, Angelou became the first Black female conductor of what in San Francisco?
Civil Rights
Which civil rights leader asked Angelou to serve as a northern coordinator for his organization?
Honors
In 2022, Angelou became the first Black woman to appear on which U.S. coin?
Poems
Which Angelou poem begins with a reflection on why "pretty women wonder where my secret lies"?
Honors
Which U.S. president gave Angelou the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011?
Arts
Besides writing, which other art did Angelou perform professionally early in her career?

Explanations: answer key for all 10 questions

Q1: What is the title of Maya Angelou's famous 1969 memoir?
Answer: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
The book describes her childhood in Arkansas and California. It was one of the first memoirs by a Black woman to become a major bestseller.
Q2: What was Maya Angelou's birth name?
Answer: Marguerite Annie Johnson
She was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1928. Her brother Bailey gave her the nickname Maya.
Q3: Which poem by Angelou includes the line "You may shoot me with your words"?
Answer: Still I Rise
Still I Rise, from 1978, is a poem of strength and defiance. It is one of the most quoted poems in the world.
Q4: At whose 1993 presidential inauguration did Angelou read On the Pulse of Morning?
Answer: Bill Clinton
She was the first poet to read at an inauguration since Robert Frost in 1961. A recording of the poem later won a Grammy.
Q5: As a teenager, Angelou became the first Black female conductor of what in San Francisco?
Answer: A cable car or streetcar
Angelou was determined to get the job and kept visiting the office until she was hired, at about age 16.
Q6: Which civil rights leader asked Angelou to serve as a northern coordinator for his organization?
Answer: Martin Luther King Jr.
Angelou worked for King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference. King was killed on her 40th birthday, April 4, 1968.
Q7: In 2022, Angelou became the first Black woman to appear on which U.S. coin?
Answer: The quarter
She was the first woman honored in the American Women Quarters Program. The coin shows her with a bird in flight.
Q8: Which Angelou poem begins with a reflection on why "pretty women wonder where my secret lies"?
Answer: Phenomenal Woman
Phenomenal Woman celebrates confidence and inner beauty. It has been read at countless events and graduations.
Q9: Which U.S. president gave Angelou the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011?
Answer: Barack Obama
The Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian honor in the United States. She also received the National Medal of Arts in 2000.
Q10: Besides writing, which other art did Angelou perform professionally early in her career?
Answer: Singing and dancing
Angelou toured Europe with a production of Porgy and Bess and released an album of calypso songs in 1957.

Maya Angelou Quiz – A Voice of Courage

Maya Angelou was one of the most celebrated American writers of the 20th century. A poet, memoirist, performer, teacher and activist, she wrote about hardship, identity and hope in a voice that reached millions of readers. Her words are quoted at graduations, in classrooms and in speeches around the world, and many people know at least one of her lines by heart.

Born Marguerite Annie Johnson in St. Louis in 1928, she spent much of her childhood in Stamps, Arkansas, with her grandmother. After a traumatic event, she stopped speaking for several years, and during that silence she fell in love with books and poetry. As a teenager in San Francisco, she became the city's first Black female streetcar conductor.

Before becoming famous as a writer, Angelou worked as a singer, dancer, actress and journalist, and she lived in Egypt and Ghana. In the 1960s she worked with Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X during the civil rights movement. Her 1969 memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, made her internationally known and was followed by six more autobiographies.

Her poems, including Still I Rise and Phenomenal Woman, speak about dignity and strength. In 1993 she read On the Pulse of Morning at Bill Clinton's inauguration. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011, died in 2014, and in 2022 became the first Black woman on a U.S. quarter.

This quiz covers Maya Angelou's books, poems, activism and honors.

What This Quiz Teaches

This quiz is ideal for readers, students and anyone inspired by Maya Angelou's words.

Her birth name and where she grew up
What her most famous memoir is about
Which poems made her famous
Her role in the civil rights movement
What she read at a presidential inauguration
The honors she received during and after her life

Quick Facts About Maya Angelou

Angelou received more than 50 honorary degrees.
She directed the 1998 film Down in the Delta.
She taught at Wake Forest University in North Carolina for many years.
Angelou spoke several languages, including French, Spanish and Fanti.
She wrote in hotel rooms, keeping a Bible, a dictionary and a deck of cards nearby.
Angelou was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for her 1971 poetry collection.