Who becomes the first African American woman to appear on US coin?

Maya Angelou has becomed the first Black woman ever to appear on a US quarter, after a coin featuring the late poet and activist’s image went into circulation on 13 January 2022. The quarter features an image of Angelou with her arms uplifted, a bird in flight, and a rising sun behind her, with a portrait of George Washington on the “heads” side. The US Mint said the image of Angelou was “inspired by her poetry and symbolic of the way she lived”. The poet and writer, who died in 2014, was the author of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, in which she wrote about the racial discrimination she experienced growing up.