"Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud."- Maya Angelou

May 28, 2014, Maya Angelou died at the age of 86. Angelou is best known as a writer but that was not her only occupation. 

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was her first book written in 1969. The book told the story of her childhood up until the age of 17. While it is considered a piece of literature, it is actually an autobiography, the first of seven. 

In addition to writing the series, Angelou was an actress, a dancer, a civil rights activist and a promoter of black culture. As a dancer, Angelou took on the name Maya Angelou. Her real name was Marguerite Johnson.

After meeting Martin Luther King, Jr., Angelou began working with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference by raising money. When she began working with SCLC, she worked to end Apartheid in South Africa. She lived in Africa for time where she met and befriended Malcolm X. 

On May 28th, she died of bad health. Maya Angelou is well-known to high school students who are required to read I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings as well as to the country for her work in civil rights and promoting black culture. In 2011, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama. 

The nation lost a very important and influential woman this week.