Maya Angelou, Writer and Civil Rights Activist

Maya Angelou, Writer and Civil Rights Activist Maya Angelou (born Marguerite Annie Johnson; April 4, 1928–May 28, 2014) was a celebrated poet, memoirist, singer, dancer, actor, and civil rights activist. Her autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, a bestseller published in 1969 and nominated for the National Book Award, revealed her experiences growing up as an African-American during the Jim Crow Era. The book was one of the first written by an African-American woman to appeal to a mainstream readership. Fast Facts: Maya Angelou Known For: Poet, memoirist, singer, dancer, actor, and civil rights activistAlso Known As: Marguerite Annie JohnsonBorn: April 4, 1928 in St. Louis, MissouriParents: Bailey Johnson, Vivian Baxter JohnsonDied: May 28, 2014 in Winston-Salem, North CarolinaPublished Works: ï » ¿I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Gather Together in My Name, The Heart of a Womanï » ¿Awards and Honors: National Medal of Arts,  Presidential Medal of FreedomSpouse(s): Tosh Angelos, Paul du FeuChild: Guy JohnsonNotable Quote: My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style. Early Life Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Ann Johnson on April 4, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri. Her father Bailey Johnson was a doorman and navy dietitian. Her mother Vivian Baxter Johnson was a nurse. Angelou received her nickname from her older brother Bailey Jr., who couldnt pronounce her name so he called her Maya, which he derived from my sister. Angelous parents divorced when she was 3. She and her brother were sent to live with their paternal grandmother Anne Henderson in Stamps, Arkansas. Within four years, Angelou and her brother were taken to live with their mother in St. Louis. While living there, Angelou was raped before she turned 8 years old by her mother’s boyfriend. After she told her brother, the man was arrested and, upon his release, was killed, probably by Angelous uncles. His murder and the trauma surrounding it caused Angelou to be almost completely mute for five years. When Angelou was 14, she moved with her mother to San Francisco, California. She took lessons in dance and drama on a scholarship to the California Labor School and  graduated from George Washington High School. That same year, at the age of 17, she gave birth to her son Guy. She worked to support herself and her child as a cocktail waitress, cook, and dancer. Arts Career Begins In 1951, Angelou moved to New York City with her son and her husband Tosh Angelos so that she could study African dance with Pearl Primus. She also took modern dance classes. She returned to California and teamed with dancer and choreographer Alvin Ailey to perform at African-American fraternal organizations as â€Å"Al and Rita† throughout San Francisco. In 1954, Angelou’s marriage ended but she continued dancing. While performing at San Franciscos Purple Onion, Angelou decided to use the name Maya Angelou because it was distinctive. She combined the nickname her brother had given her with a new last name she derived from her former husbands surname. In 1959, Angelou became acquainted with novelist James O. Killens, who encouraged her to hone her skills as a writer. Moving back to New York City, Angelou joined the Harlem Writer’s Guild and began to publish her work. About the same time, Angelou landed a role in a State Department-sponsored production of George Gershwin’s folk opera  Porgy and Bess and toured 22 countries in Europe and Africa. She also studied dance with  Martha Graham.  Ã‚   Civil Rights The following year, Angelou met Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and she and Killens organized the Cabaret for Freedom benefit to raise money for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Angelou was appointed the SCLC’s northern coordinator.  Continuing her performance career, in 1961 she appeared in  Jean Genet’s play  The Blacks. Angelou became romantically involved with South African activist Vusumzi Make and moved to Cairo, where she worked as an associate editor for the Arab Observer. In 1962, Angelou moved to Accra, Ghana, where she worked at the University of Ghana and continued to hone her craft as a writer, working as a feature editor for The African Review, a freelancer for the Ghanaian Times, and a radio personality for Radio Ghana. While living in Ghana, Angelou became an active member of the African-American expatriate community, meeting and becoming a close friend of Malcolm X. When she returned to the United States in 1965, Angelou helped Malcolm X develop the Organization of Afro-American Unity. Before the organization could really begin working, however, he was assassinated. In 1968, while she was helping King organize a march, he, too, was assassinated. The death of these leaders inspired Angelou to write, produce, and narrate a 10-part documentary titled â€Å"Blacks, Blues, Black!† The following year, her autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, was published by Random House to international acclaim. Four years later, Angelou published Gather Together in My Name, which told about her life as a single mother and budding performer. In 1976, Singin and Swingin and Gettin Merry Like Christmas was published. The Heart of a Woman followed in 1981. Sequels All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986), A Song Flung Up to Heaven (2002), and Mom Me Mom (2013) came later. Other Highlights   In addition to publishing her autobiographical series, Angelou produced the film Georgia, Georgia in 1972.  The following year she  was nominated for a Tony Award for her role in Look Away. In 1977, Angelou played a supporting role in the Golden Globes-winning TV mini-series Roots. In 1981, Angelou was appointed the Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Then, in 1993, Angelou was chosen to recite her poem â€Å"On the Pulse of Morning† at President Bill Clintons inauguration. In 2010, Angelou donated her personal papers and other items from her career to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. The following year, President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian honor. Death Maya Angelou had been having health issues for many years and was suffering from heart problems when she died on May 28, 2014. She was found by her caretaker at her home in Winston-Salem, where she had taught for a number of years at Wake Forest University. She was 86. Legacy Maya Angelou was a trailblazer in achieving success in so many fields as an African-American woman. Immediate respondents to her passing indicated the breadth of her influence. They included singer  Mary J. Blige, U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, and President  Barack Obama. In addition to the National Medal of Arts presented by President Clinton and the  Presidential Medal of Freedom presented by President Obama, she was given the Literarian Award, an honorary National Book Award for contributions to the literary community. Before her death, Angelou had been awarded more than 50 honorary degrees. Sources Maya Angelou Biography. Biography.com.Maya Angelou: American Poet, Memorist, and Actress. Encyclopedia Britannica.Poet Maya Angelou. Poets.org.Maya Angelou. Poetryfoundation.org.

The Meaning and Origin of the Surname Rodriguez

The Meaning and Origin of the Surname Rodriguez The name Rodriguez is of Spanish origin. It patronymic in nature (taken from the paternal line) and means son of Rodrigo. The ez or es added to the root signifies descendant of. The given name Rodrigo is the Spanish form of Roderick, meaning famous power or powerful ruler, which comes from the Germanic elements hrod, meaning fame and ric, meaning power. Where Do People With the Rodriguez Surname Live? Overall, Rodriguez is the 60th most common surname in the world. According to WorldNames PublicProfiler, the Rodriguez surname is extremely popular in Spain. Its most commonly found in the region of Islas Canarias, followed by Galicia, Asturias,  Castilla y Leà ³n, and Extremadura. The name is also popular in Argentina and is distributed fairly evenly throughout the country. The genealogy site Forebears ranks Rodriguez as the number one surname in Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Colombia, and Uraguay. It ranks second in Argentina, Puerto Rico, and Panama and third in Spain, Peru, and Honduras. Fast Facts About the Name Rodriguez Ninth Most Common Name in America: According to the 2000 census, Rodriguez ranked the ninth most common surname in the United States, likely the first time a non-Anglo name ranked among the top 10 (at #8 the Hispanic surname Garcia also cracked the top 10).Famous People Named Rodriguez: Luis Rodriguez, contemporary poet; Michelle Rodriguez, American actress; Alex Rodriguez, New York Yankees third basemanAlternate Surname Spellings:  Rodrigue, Rodriques, Roderick, Rodiger, Rhodriquez, Rhodriguez, Rodrigues (Portuguese) Genealogy Resources for the Surname Rodriguez Contrary to what you may have heard, theres no such thing as a Rodriguez family crest or coat of arms.  Coats of arms are granted to individuals- not families- and may rightfully be used only by the uninterrupted male-line descendants of the person to whom the coat of arms was originally granted.   To learn more about the origins of common Hispanic surnames and their meanings, a good place to start is with the information taken from the 2000 U.S. census about the 100 most common U.S. surnames and their meanings. The following is a list of other helpful resources for learning more about the Rodriguez surname: The Rodriguez DNA Project: This Y-DNA project is open to all males with the Rodriguez surname (or its variations) interested in working together to use DNA testing and traditional family history research to identify common Rodriguez ancestors.Rodriguez Family Genealogy Forum: Search this popular genealogy forum to find others who may also be researching your ancestors, or post your own Rodriguez query.FamilySearch- Rodriguez Genealogy: Access over 12 million free historical records and lineage-linked family trees posted for the Rodriguez surname and its variations on this free genealogy website hosted by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.Rodriquez Surname Family Mailing Lists: RootsWeb hosts several free mailing lists for researchers. You can also search or browse the list archives to view Rodriquez surname queries and posts going back for over a decade.DistantCousin.com- Rodriquez Genealogy Family History: Explore free databases and genealogy links for the last name Rodriguez. The Rodriguez Genealogy and Family Tree Page: Browse genealogy records and links to genealogical and historical records for individuals with the Rodriguez surname from the website of Genealogy Today. Sources Cottle, Basil. Penguin Dictionary of Surnames. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1967.Menk, Lars. A Dictionary of German Jewish Surnames. Bergenfield, NJ: Avotaynu, 2005.Beider, Alexander. A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from Galicia.  Bergenfield, NJ:  Avotaynu, 2004.Hanks, Patrick, and Flavia Hodges. A Dictionary of Surnames. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.Hanks, Patrick. Dictionary of American Family Names. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.Hoffman, William F. Polish Surnames: Origins and Meanings.  Chicago:  Polish Genealogical Society, 1993.Rymut, Kazimierz. Nazwiska Polakow.  Wroclaw: Zaklad Narodowy im. Ossolinskich - Wydawnictwo, 1991.Smith, Elsdon C. American Surnames. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1997.

Problems faced by Grandiose Motors Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Problems faced by Grandiose Motors - Essay Example Being proactive in his approach, the CEO wants to make sure that the planning for inventory management is done in advance so that the company can remain efficient. A major factor, which Felix Fabulous has extracted out, which could cause problems to the company is the inventory management system of the spare parts which are used in after sales service, one of the most important reasons why customers prefer Grandiose Motors over its competitors. In order to maintain the reputation of the company as an excellent provider of after sales service, the CEO wants to make sure that the purchasing and inventory management of the service parts should remain as efficient as possible and the company must be able to provide all the necessary spare parts without delaying customer wait time and at the same time reduce the cost of inventory holding and other operations in order to provide customers with low priced after sales service car repairs.. That is why he wants the purchasing department to de vise strategies for improved purchasing and warehousing of spare parts and other materials. A car dealership is a business in which profitability depends on per square foot of floor space and as vehicles occupy a lot of space, it is important that any car dealership must allocate maximum space to accommodate the placement of vehicles. In order to do so, it must utilize a much lesser space for other operations such as keeping and warehousing inventory. In light of this, Grandiose Motors faces the following problems related to space availability and inventory management: All the parts had different levels of demand and different suppliers; hence the company had to deal with many suppliers at the same time. This prohibited the company to achieve cost cutting as they could not purchase bulk quantity from a single supplier at a discount.

Marketing channel article Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Marketing channel article - Essay Example The competition is reacting accordingly in order to ensure Amazon does not steal market share away from them. â€Å"Companies like Walmart, Best Buy and Toys â€Å"R† Us have already announced that they will not be undersold and will match any competitors’ prices in a printed flyer or website† (Loeb). The use of a matching pricing strategy can help retailers retain market share, but it does so at the expense of lowering profitability. The pricing strategies that are being used by major retailers are benefiting the customers who are going to be able to obtain bargain prices on many products. Best Buy plans to match competitors prices as well, but this firm believes that they have a competitive advantage over Amazon because they are able to physically show its customers the products they want to buy in their showrooms, while at the same time offering great prices though its website. For other retailers such as Toys R Us Christmas season is more important to them since most of their yearly sales are dependent on the arrival of Santa Claus on Christmas. A matching pricing strategy was an obvious move for them due to their dependency on Christmas sales. Amazon is leading the pack this Christmas season by offering daily sales on a high variety of items. The pricing strategy of Amazon intends to increase its market share as much as possible. It all starts on Black Friday for Amazon with deals on popular items such as sm artphones, diamond rings, and Wrangler jeans. After Black Friday the company intends on adding deals each day on different items in order to motivate buyers to make purchases. Last year Amazon lead the industry with 2,840 prices changes on Black Friday. Most of the prices changes were down, but some went up in order to offset the loss of profitability of reducing prices. This article showed that pricing is a critical factor that affects the buying behavior of consumers. Companies competing for market shares

Is human evolution over Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Is human evolution over - Essay Example The creature referred to as the pre-hominoid primate was of the primate species; the same category of mammals as monkeys, apes and humans. It had a canning semblance with the animals that are today known as monkeys, but was neither a monkey nor an ape. Scientists have over the years endeavoured to provide evidence that these higher order primates are the species that in a gradual process developed into humankind. In retrospect, this theory poses the important question of whether human evolution continues to date or not. This paper seeks to shed light on this matter, through a detailed analysis of various literatures. Keywords: Theory of evolution, human evolution, species, primate. Introduction Evolution refers to the process of a string of natural modifications that result in a species of a population of organisms and the process that causes the species to develop, adjust to their surroundings, and eventually die out of becoming extinct (Smithsonian National Museum of Natural Histor y, n.d.). All species including humans have developed through the process of biological evolution. In species such as humans and other organisms that undergo sexual reproduction, the term species is used in the description and identification of a cluster whose mature members frequently reproduce bringing about fertile offspring. These offspring also have the ability to reproduce (Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, n.d.). Evolution follows when the genetic material that makes up an organism and is received from parents changes; that is, the chemical molecule known as the DNA. Genes are the portion of the DNA that is responsible for the production of proteins (Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, n.d.). Information borne in the DNA changes through a process of mutation, and as a result of this mutation, there is influence on particular genes in the body or the conduct of an organism. As a result of this, the survival and reproduction of an organism is influence d by its genetic make-up and its genetically acquired attributes (Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, n.d.). Human evolution refers to the drawn-out progression of change, which facilitated the development of people from apelike progenitors. Scientific evidence has revealed that the physical and developmental attributes shared by the entire human species originated from apelike predecessors and evolved over a period of time (Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, n.d.). According to the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), the first affiliates of the human species began the evolution process in Africa, roughly six or seven million years ago (n.d.). This species was known as the Hominidae. Their behaviour and way of life was similar to that of the primates from which the species of gorillas and chimpanzees evolved. They could often be found on trees but were different from their primate counterparts due to their ability to facilely walk on two feet rather t han on fours, like the other primates (American Museum of Natural History, n.d.). This is a characteristic that researchers on human evolution distinctively associate with the human species. Today’s species of humans to which we belong is known as the Homo sapiens and is an evidence of the vivid evolutionary history that the human species has undergone over a period of more than 150,000 years, since

Selective Incorporation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Selective Incorporation - Essay Example Selective incorporation has been applied in numerous instances to protect and uphold human rights especially in a criminal proceeding. This was done during the tenure of chief justice Earl Warren when the rights enjoyed by the criminal defendants were expanded. For example, in the case of Gideon v Wainwright, the defendant was accused of breaking into bay harbor pool hall and stealing cigarette change from the vending machines.Though Gideon requested a lawyer to be appointed by the states, the state of Florida declined, stating that this can only be done in capital offenses. However, the Supreme Court ruled that the 14th amendment allowed all defendants to access the services of an attorney. This right, as stated in the sixth amendment of the constitution was meant to protect the rights of the accused and ensure the provision of free trails. The Miranda v Arizona established the principle of equal access to legal representation during a trial and the determination was based on select ive incorporation. Failure to inform a suspect of his right during arrest constitutes legal subjugation of their legal rights as contained in the first 8 amendments and the 14th amendment of the United States Constitution. The 5th amendment of the united states indicates that a suspect has a right to remain silent during arrest as any pronouncement made can be used against them in the determination of the case.The sixth amendment indicates that a legal counsel must represent suspects during the determination of their cases.

Steroids Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Steroids - Essay Example Steroids are not magic pills that produce the desired effects instantly. The truth is that they work only when the user observes certain lifestyles such as consistent physical exercise, healthy diet, and effective sleep schedules (Sterngass 32). Another common misconception is that injection steroids are safer than oral steroids. Safety is an important issue with all classes and types of steroids. Injection steroids do have side effects such as hair loss and acne that are also found in oral steroids. There are many who believe that women do not use steroids. On the contrary, there have been studies that have observed significant numbers of women who use steroids. Skewed body image, self-defense, bodybuilding, and athletics are all reasons that cause women to use steroids. However, there is strong evidence that more men use steroids than women do (Sterngass 33). Anabolic steroids are one commonly known type of steroids. Primarily, anabolic steroids are meant to reduce the breakdown of testosterone and maximize its ability to build tissues. Clenbuterol is an example of anabolic steroids commonly used by bodybuilders and athletes. This anabolic steroid helps in the shedding of body fats and weight loss. Anabolic steroids can be taken either through intramuscular injection or orally. Commentators observe that beginners in steroid use are the ones who prefer to take steroids orally. Oral intake of anabolic steroids has higher chances of side effects than injection (Sterngass 34). There are growth hormone steroids such as hGH (Human growth hormone) that imitates a hormone produced in the brain. Growth hormone steroids have been used to accelerate height growth in short children and increase the strength of the elderly. Most growth hormone steroids increase muscle mass, fat breakdown for energy and enhance musculoskeletal injury healing. Another type of steroids is erythropoietin that helps athletics endure the impact and improve performance. An example of