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S31 Ep2: Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise | Clip

Explore the strong friendship between Maya Angelou and Malcolm X in Ghana

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While Maya Angelou was living with her son in Ghana, she met and began working with Malcolm X.

Funding for Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise is provided by IDP Foundation, Ford Foundation/Just Films, National Endowment for the Arts, National Black Programming Consortium, Anne Ulnick, Michael Metelits, and Loida and Leslie Lewis.

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Major support for American Masters is provided by AARP. Additional funding is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Rosalind P. Walter, The Philip and Janice Levin Foundation, Judith and Burton Resnick, Ellen and James S. Marcus, Vital Projects Fund, Lillian Goldman Programming Endowment, The Blanche & Irving Laurie Foundation, Cheryl and Philip Milstein Family, The André and Elizabeth Kertész Foundation, Michael & Helen Schaffer Foundation and public television viewers.

Features

PBS Previews: Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise
Clip | Dr. Maya Angelou On the Creative Writing Process
Clip | Louis Gossett Jr. shares a story about his great-grandmother
Clip | Making the Film
Clip | Learn why Bill Clinton invited Maya Angelou to speak at his inauguration
Clip | Maya Angelou’s heartbreak after losing out on a job with Pearl Bailey
Clip | Hear how Maya Angelou met Tupac Shakur for the first time
Clip | Go behind the scenes with John Singleton
Explore Dr. Maya Angelou’s Life through her books
Clip | Learn why Maya Angelou signed with Porgy and Bess
Clip | See Maya Angelou’s early performances in the Bay Area
Clip | Behind the Scenes with Common, Rita Coburn-Whack & Maya Angelou
Clip | Maya Angelou on Teaching
Clip | Maya Angelou & James Baldwin
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TRANSCRIPT

When Malcolm X came to Ghana the African Americans who were there, we gathered around him like his children, and he liked me, and we liked each other. I met Malcolm X at my mother's house in Ghana.

My mother went out and bought about six chickens, and she rarely fried chicken and I was almost sorry to meet Malcolm X because the chicken was so good, and I had to share it with him. But the thing about Malcolm is, for a person of his stature, for me to ask a question and for him to think about it and then come back with an answer: captured my heart. And his answers were so phenomenal. We wanted to meet so he could tell us what was going on in the States, and what his plans were. And we found out that his quest was to find an African government that would take the United Nations Genocide Convention and make a charge against the United States. African nations and Asian nations and Latin American nations look very hypocritical when they stand up in the United Nations condemning the racist practices of South Africa and saying nothing in the UN about the racist practices manifest every day of these negroes in this society. This is Maya with me, and our delegation went into the American Embassy in Ghana to deliver our petition condemning the United States. Have you had any commitment from any nations in Africa to support you? I would rather not say at this time.

In fact we couldn't get any African government to bring any charge against the U.S. because of the American money. The cash.

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