2714 1/2 Caroline Street

Actress, author, and educator Maya Angelou (1928–2014) was born Marguerite Johnson to Bailey and Vivian Baxter Johnson. At the time of her birth, the family was living in St. Louis on Hickory Street. In her 1970 autobiography "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings", Angelou described her childhood. After her parents' marriage disintegrated, she and her mother were sent from their California home to live with their paternal grandmother, the owner of a general merchandise store in Stamps, Arkansas.

Later, the children moved back to St. Louis, where they stayed with their maternal grandparents, Percy and Flora Baxter, on Caroline Street. Angelou briefly attended L'ouverture School before she and her brother were sent to live with their mother and her boyfriend, who abused Angelou.

As an adult, Angelou worked as an actress, journalist, author, and civil rights activist. In 1982, she became the Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. On January 20, 1993, Angelou read her poem "On the Pulse of Morning", commissioned for the occasion, at the inauguration of President Bill Clinton in Washington, D.C.