A conversation with maya angelou on her extraordinary muni ties

Page 1

A Conversation with Maya Angelou on Her Extraordinary Muni Ties Maya Angelou. Three-time Grammy winner. Pulitzer Prize nominee for poetry. Actress. Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient. San Francisco’s first female African American streetcar conductor. If nothing else, Dr. Angelou’s story is a testament that greatness can spring from anywhere, travels a varied path, and is a sum of its parts. The SFMTA’s Mark De Anda spoke recently with one of America’s most celebrated storytellers about yet another groundbreaking moment in her distinguished life, as the Market Street Railway’s first female African American streetcar conductor. Hear her take on life in the city during wartime, and her thoughts on Muni’s “Peace” campaign, featuring her own words. During a recent Oprah Winfrey interview, Dr. Angelou reintroduced a fact originally chronicled in her first autobiography, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.” In 1942, a 16year-old Maya Angelou became, arguably, the first female streetcar conductor of African American descent to work for the Market Street Railway, eventually acquired by Muni in 1944. Where did you live here in San Francisco? I lived at 1661 Post Street. I finished George Washington High School there. I then received a scholarship at the California Labor School where I studied drama and dance. How did you decide you wanted to be a Conductor? Well, I had left San Francisco to spend time with my father in San Diego. Due to unfortunate circumstances, I was about a month late getting back to school, to George Washington High in San Francisco. So my mother said, since I was already ahead of myself there, that I could stay home for the semester. The only thing I had to do was get a job, and being a streetcar conductor was the only thing that looked exciting to me. I noticed that the conductors were women and they wore snappy uniforms and they looked cute. They had money belts and caps with bills on them and their uniforms were fitted—they were so smart, so chic. And it was your mother who encouraged you to apply for the job. Yes. I told my mother, Vivian Baxter, that I wanted that job and she told me to go out and get it. That’s when I found out they didn’t want me. What was her advice to you when you informed her of that? She said if you want it, get it. I told her the secretaries at the employment office wouldn’t even give me an application. She told me to go to the employment office and get there before the secretaries and stay there until after they leave until they gave me an


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.