Civil rights activist Maya Angelou has died at age 86. Her family say she passed away quietly in her home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
In a statement her family add "She was a warrior for equality, tolerance and peace. The family is extremely appreciative of the time we had with her and we know that she is looking down upon us with love".
She was a celebrated poet, memoirist, novelist, educator, dramatist, producer, actress, historian, filmmaker, and civil rights activist.
Born on April 4th, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri, she was raised in St. Louis and Stamps, Arkansas.
As a teenager, her love for the arts won her a scholarship to study dance and drama at San Francisco’s Labor School. At 14, she dropped out to become San Francisco’s first African-American female cable car conductor.
She later finished school, giving birth to her son - Guy - a few weeks after graduation. In 1954 and 1955, she toured Europe with a production of the opera 'Porgy and Bess'.
Angelou with chat show host Oprah Winfrey, who interviewed her several times
In 1958, she moved to New York, where she joined the Harlem Writers Guild, acted in the historic Off-Broadway production of Jean Genet's 'The Blacks' and wrote and performed Cabaret for Freedom.
In 1960, she moved to Cairo, Egypt where she served as editor of the English language weekly 'The Arab Observer'. The next year, she moved to Ghana where she taught at the University of Ghana's School of Music and Drama, worked as feature editor for 'The African Review' and wrote for 'The Ghanaian Times'.
While in Ghana, she met with Malcolm X and, in 1964, returned to America to help him build his new Organisation of African-American Unity.
Shortly after her arrival in the United States, Malcolm X was assassinated, and the organization dissolved. Soon after his assassination, Dr. Martin Luther King Junior asked Dr. Angelou to serve as Northern Coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
King was assassinated on her birthday in 1968.
She served on two US Presidential committees, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Arts in 2000, the Lincoln Medal in 2008, and has received three Grammy Awards.
President Bill Clinton requested that she compose a poem to read at his inauguration in 1993.
She received over 50 honorary degrees and is Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University.
This was her final tweet - dated May 23rd:
Listen to yourself and in that quietude you might hear the voice of God.
— Maya Angelou (@DrMayaAngelou) May 23, 2014
She tweeted this video last December, as a tribute to the late Nelson Mandela.
