Wake Forest University Names a Campus Building to Honor Maya Angelou

mangelouWake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, announced that its newest residence hall will be named to honor Maya Angelou, who served as the Reynolds Professor of American Studies at the university from 1982 until her death in 2014. The building will be the first on the Wake Forest campus to be named for an African American.

The new residence hall will be ready in January for some students who have been studying abroad this semester. Then the building will be ready for occupancy by first-year students in the fall of 2017. The 76,110-square-foot residence hall was designed to house 224 students.

Professor Angelou was born Marguerite Annie Johnson in St. Louis in 1928. Her brother gave her the nickname Maya and she adopted the last name Angelou in the 1950s, which she adapted from her first husband’s surname.

In 1969, Professor Angelou published the critically acclaimed I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Random House), a story about her growing up in the racially segregated South. It was nominated for the National Book Award. She followed up this memoir with five additional autobiographical works. In 1993 she read her poem “On the Pulse of the Morning” at the inauguration of President Bill Clinton. In 2011, President Obama presented Professor Angelou with the Medal of Freedom.

angleou-hall

Related Articles

1 COMMENT

Leave a Reply

Get the JBHE Weekly Bulletin

Receive our weekly email newsletter delivered to your inbox

Latest News

California State University Sacramento Launches Black Honors College

Officially launching for the fall 2024 semester, the Black Honors College will support students from all backgrounds who study Black history, life, and culture by providing them with a specialized curriculum and mentoring opportunities.

Higher Education Gifts or Grants of Interest to African Americans

Here is this week’s news of grants or gifts to historically Black colleges and universities or for programs of particular interest to African Americans in higher education.

In Memoriam: Norman B. Anderson, 1955-2024

Dr. Anderson was the assistant vice president for research and academic affairs at Florida State University at the time of his death. He had an extensive career in clinical psychology, which led him to become the first African American chief executive officer of the American Psychological Association.

Georgia State University Launches Program to Support Black Women in Tech

While Black women account for roughly 29 percent of the Georgia State University undergradaute student body, they represent only 10 percent of the university's computer science majors and 18 percent of the computer information systems majors.

Featured Jobs