--- description: A Depression-era photo from Arkansas puts into extraordinary relief the life Maya Angelou led, and the distance she traveled in her time. title: Maya Angelou's Arkansas: Dignity and Poverty in the Depression image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt43b0f331dae50b5e/6986910fe8524b18e66030e5/arkansas-cotton-1930s.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Maya Angelou](/tag/maya-angelou/) ## Maya Angelou Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Maya Angelou's Arkansas: Dignity and Poverty in the Depression by [Ben Cosgrove](/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 28, 2014 5:53 PM CUT  A young African American Young cotton picker in Arkansas during the Depression. A young African American Young cotton picker in Arkansas during the Depression.Buyenlarge/Getty Images by [Ben Cosgrove](/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 28, 2014 5:53 PM CUT Born in St. Louis, Mo., on April 28, 1928, the author Maya Angelou grew up in Stamps, Ark., witnessing the racial disharmony that defined the Jim Crow American South of her youth. There she cultivated the dignity and her own brand of quiet strength that would mark her writing and her activism for the rest of her life. The picture above, of a young African-American cotton picker in an Arkansas field in the mid-1930s, is the sort of tableau that Angelou would certainly have encountered throughout her time in the South: namely, a child in rags, put to hard work at a tender age. The idea that this might well have been Maya Angelou’s fate — and that it _was_ the fate of countless others — puts into stark relief the life she led, and the distance she traveled. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/125615/maya-angelous-arkansas-dignity-and-poverty-in-the-depression/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/125615/maya-angelous-arkansas-dignity-and-poverty-in-the-depression/"},"headline":"Maya Angelou's Arkansas: Dignity and Poverty in the Depression","datePublished":"2014-05-28T17:53:48.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T08:05:14.261Z","description":"A Depression-era photo from Arkansas puts into extraordinary relief the life Maya Angelou led, and the distance she traveled in her time","url":"https://time.com/125615/maya-angelous-arkansas-dignity-and-poverty-in-the-depression/","keywords":["Maya Angelou","Arkansas"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt43b0f331dae50b5e/6986910fe8524b18e66030e5/arkansas-cotton-1930s.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ben Cosgrove","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt43b0f331dae50b5e/6986910fe8524b18e66030e5/arkansas-cotton-1930s.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"African American Cotton Picker, Arkansas, circa 1935","caption":"African American Young cotton picker, Arkansas, circa 1935","creditText":"Buyenlarge/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/maya-angelou/","name":"Maya Angelou"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/125615/maya-angelous-arkansas-dignity-and-poverty-in-the-depression/","name":"Maya Angelou's Arkansas: Dignity and Poverty in the Depression"}}]}] ```