Poet Maya Angelou becomes first Black woman to appear on US coin
The United States Mint has started distributing quarters featuring the image of Maya Angelou, making the poet and activist the first Black woman to appear on US currency.
The quarter features an image of Angelou with her arms uplifted, a bird in flight, and a rising sun behind her, with a portrait of George Washington on the “heads” side. The US Mint said the image of Angelou was “inspired by her poetry and symbolic of the way she lived”.
The poet and writer, who died in 2014, was the author of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, in which she wrote about the racial discrimination she experienced growing up.
Maya Angelou, the author of 36 books and the recipient of more than 20 honorary degrees, read her poem On the Pulse of the Morning at Bill Clinton’s 1992 inaugurat...
