Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou (1928–2014) was a poet, writer, and civil rights activist representative of 20th-century America. Born in an era of severe discrimination against Black people, she went through hardships large and small from childhood, but she turned that experience instead into writing and voice that moved the hearts of countless people. She was chosen as the very first subject of the “American Women Quarters” series — a testament to how deeply her life resonated with the American people.

On the reverse of the coin is engraved the image of Maya Angelou with her arms flung wide. Behind her are a bird in flight and a rising sun. The person with open arms, the flying bird, and the rising sun come together in an image that seems to speak of freedom and hope.

This image is deeply connected to her representative work, the autobiography “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.” The “caged bird” means a person who does not stop singing even amid discrimination and oppression. By honestly putting her own story into writing, Angelou showed that even a person in a difficult situation can fully raise their own voice.

As both a Black person and a woman, she stood before a double wall, but through poetry, prose, and speeches she lowered that wall little by little. Her writing told wounded people that “your story is precious,” and so it is still widely read today, across generations.

Holding the coin and gazing at this person with arms flung wide, we naturally come to recall how the voice of one person who rose above pain can change the world. That is the reason Maya Angelou is still honored today.