Graduation By Maya Angelou Summary

Students of African descent had great challenges in the past; many conquered their issues and moved on with their lives. The text, “Graduation,” by Maya Angelou, describes her thoughts and feelings before and after her graduation. Angelou has made several accomplishments in her life, like a successful dancer, an actor, a fiction writer, a poet, a civil rights activist, and a memoirist. The article uses sensory, which means relating to one’s personal life to allow the reader to become interested. During school, Angelou attended the Lafayette County Training School, a school for African American students. This school was more run down than the schools for Caucasian students. However, this did not stop the students from graduating. A good example is, “Oh, we were up to snuff, all right,”(Angelou 15). The quote explains that even though students were faced with hard challenges, they still gave it their best effort. Angelou and other students were quite smart, they had memorized all of the presidents names in alphabetical and chronological order in the eighth grade. The students worked hard and

Many people in the crowd had tears because they were proud and overtaken by the emotion in their song. During the ceremony, the students were put down by the speaker, Donleavy. He said Caucasian students were more likely to achieve their goals than African American students. “The meticulous maps, drawn in three colors of ink, learning and spelling decasyllabic words, memorizing the whole of The Rape of Lucrece—it was for nothing. Donleavy had exposed us,” (Angelou 17), the speaker put down all of the black students, saying stating they needed to work in the fields before they even considered pursuing a career. Angelou was upset, saying that she wished the main people involved with civil rights had not helped the African