Barack Obama Instagram – Today would have been Dr. Maya Angelou’s 95th birthday. When I awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011, I talked about how this phenomenal woman changed the world with her words. Today is a good day to re-share it: As a girl, Marguerite Ann Johnson endured trauma and abuse that actually led her to stop speaking. But as a performer, and ultimately a writer, a poet, Maya Angelou found her voice. It’s a voice that’s spoken to millions, including my mother, which is why my sister is named Maya. By holding on, even amid cruelty and loss, and then expanding to a sense of compassion, an ability to love—by holding on to her humanity—she has inspired countless others who have known injustice and misfortune in their own lives. I won’t try to say it better than Maya Angelou herself, who wrote that: History, despite its wrenching pain, Cannot be unlived, and if faced with courage, Need not be lived again. Lift up your eyes upon The day breaking for you. Give birth again To the dream . . .