Free Maya Angelou by Mary; Lupton

American Revolution Bicentennial Council. Angelou wore this hat gracefully, as a patriotic duty: “I am an American, as much as the Irish who live here are Americans…. There are many thingsI’m proud of and many things I’m disappointed in, referring to my country. It would be the same if I lived in Birmingham, Alabama, or Birmingham, England. But I am an American” (“Icon” 1997).
    In 1976, a year after the appointment from President Ford, the Ladies’ Home Journal named Maya Angelou Woman of the Year in Communications. In 1977, President Jimmy Carter named her to a commission in observance of International Women’s Year. In 1993, following her Inaugural reading, she became a friend of president and Mrs. Clinton.
    She has also been honored by foundations, receiving a Yale University Fellowship in 1970 and the enviable Rockefeller Foundation Scholarship in 1975. In the same year she received the Horatio Alger Award, Alger being an American novelist who wrote about poor children who eventually became successful. In 1982, at the age of fifty-four, she was named first Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, a lifetime appointment. Two years later, the new governor, James B. Hunt, appointed her to the board of the North Carolina Arts Council. In 1992 she received the Essence Woman of the Year Award. She also began her involvement in the creation of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, a London-based institution.
    Nor was her political commitment limited to the Clinton and Obama administrations or to British children. She also took what could have been a considerable risk when she actively supported the rights of gay marriage in New York State in the summer of 2009 (freedomtomarryorg. Web. December 3, 2014). Because of her unflinching support of civil rights and gay rights, Angelou was vilified by the right-wing group, the Westboro Baptist Church, who had threatened to disrupt the funeral held at Wake Forest University. Their efforts were unsuccessful.
    During her lifetime the activist/writer continued to earn praise from liberal and moderate institutions. In 2006 she received the John Hope Franklin Award, named for the noted black historian (1915–2009). In the same year she earned the Mother Teresa Award, given in remembrance of the Albanian nun (1910–1997) who left the convent to devote her life to the poor. Two years later she received the Lincoln Medal, an honor presented by the Ford’s Theater Society that demonstrates leadership, wisdom, eloquence, and other aspects of Abraham Lincoln’s legacy. She shared this honor with the actress Ruby Dee (1924?–2014) and with the late justice Sandra Day O’Connor (1981–2002). In 2013, at the National Book Awards, she received the Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community. Her greatest civic honor occurred in 2011, when President Barack Obama bestowed on Dr. Angelou the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her achievements in literature.
    Meanwhile, her work had continued to diversify. In the late 1990s Angelou reportedly communicated to her public through the Prodigy Internet service provider, and she had helped to organize churches on Public Television. She also participated in the Black Image circuit—African American women models, lawyers, and writers toured designated cities conducting workshops offering tips on clothes, poise, cosmetics, and problem solving. Women who have attended these workshops say that Angelou’s engagement with black middle-class women should not be trivialized, for through her example she was offering black women an opportunity to direct their talents toward achievable goals.
    Her service to major institutions, along with her remarkable self-confidence as a speaker, opened many doors for Maya Angelou, especially in the area of public policy. She had long worn the cloak