Angelou Graduation Response

Maya Angelou went through tough times as a child, particularly in 8th grade. She lived in a period of when segregation still went on. A day that stood out was the day of her graduation. Maya woke up in the morning and the day had a good start to it because breakfast was being prepared on a rare occasion and she had also received two gifts. One was a mickey mouse watch and the other was a book of poems by Edgar Allen Poe. As she was making her way to the ceremony, she felt good in her dress and was excited. Once the ceremony had started a white man by the name of Edward Donleavy made his way to the stage and gave a speech. The whole speech pretty much shut down everyone's hopes. Maya was a hard worker and the other school was getting all new sorts of equipment. Her classmate Henry Reed started singing the Negro national anthem in his speech afterward. This time, Maya understood the anthem clearly word for word. It changed her outlook on a lot of things and made her realize how big of a factor discrimination was in her life.