Maya Angelou becomes the first Black women to be on a quarter

written by Margaret White

The US Mint has begun shipping out the first of its quarters that are a part of the American Women Quarters program. This program will feature five trailblazing American women on the tails side of the coin each year until 2025. Maya Angelou will be the first quarter released.

“It is my honor to present our Nation’s first circulating coins dedicated to celebrating American women and their contributions to American history. Each 2022 quarter is designed to reflect the breadth and depth of accomplishments being celebrated throughout this historic coin program. Maya Angelou, featured on the reverse of this first coin in the series, used words to inspire and uplift.” said Mint Deputy Director Ventris C. Gibson.

The coin’s design features Maya Angelou standing with her arms spread with birds and sun rays behind her— perhaps a reference to her famous and groundbreaking autobiography “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” which commonly features a bird and the sun.

Angelou has had a remarkable career that encompasses dance, theater, journalism, and social activism. She has received more than 30 honorary degrees. At the 1992 inauguration of President Bill Clinton, Angelou read “On the Pulse of a Morning,” and marked the first time an African American woman wrote and presented a poem at a Presidential inauguration. In 2010, President Barack Obama awarded Angelou the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and she was the 2013 recipient of the Literarian Award, an honorary National Book Award for contributions to the literary community.

Other honoree in the American Women Quarters Program are astronaut Sally Ride; actress Anna May Wong; suffragist and politician Nina Otero-Warren; and Wilma Mankiller, the first female principal chief of the Cherokee Nation.