Maya Angelou

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The author standing next to statue of Nelson Mandela in Maya Angelou’s sculpture garden at her Winston-Salem home.

Maya Angelou's autobiographical "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" (shown on display at a Barnes & Noble store in Atlanta) was "about voice, about finding it and using it," says educator Thelma Reese. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

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Dr. Ben Carson, on a visit to the home of Maya Angelou on May 9, 2014.

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In this photo taken on Nov. 15, 2005, poet and author Maya Angelou smiles during an interview in Santa Monica, Calif. Maya Angelou, who rose from poverty, segregation and the harshest of childhoods to become a force on stage, screen and the printed page, died Wednesday morning, May 28, 2014, at her home in Winston-Salem, N.C. She was 86. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

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FILE - This Nov. 21, 2008 file photo shows poet Maya Angelou smiling in Washington. Angelou, a Renaissance woman and cultural pioneer, has died, Wake Forest University said in a statement Wednesday, May 28, 2014. She was 86. Maya Angelou walked into a meeting of civil rights leaders discussing affirmative action, looked around, and put them all in their place with a single observation. “She came into the room,” recalled Al Sharpton, “and she said, ‘The first problem is you don’t have women in here of equal status. We need to correct you before you can correct the country.’” Angelou, who died Wednesday at age 86, will be forever known for her soaring poetry and her searing memoirs. But her impact transcended her written words. She was the nation’s wise woman, a poet to presidents, an unapologetic conscience for the civil rights movement. Never hesitant to speak her mind, Angelou passionately defended women, and literature, and the right of younger generations to be heard. “I've seen many things, I've learned many things,” she told The Associated Press in 2013. “I've certainly been exposed to many things and I've learned something: I owe it to you to tell you."(AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

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Maya Angelou

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President Barack Obama kissing author and poet Maya Angelou after awarding her the 2010 Medal of Freedom during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)

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Maya Angelou "felt the exemplary value of having [Clarence] Thomas on the Supreme Court was potentially transformative," says Armstrong Williams, whom she called to offer her support for the nomination. (Associated Press)

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In this March 29, 2002 photo, Maya Angelou speaks at her home in Winston-Salem, N.C. Angelou, a Renaissance woman and cultural pioneer, has died, Wake Forest University said in a statement Wednesday, May 28, 2014. She was 86. (AP Photo/Winston-Salem Journal, David Rolfe)

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A bouquet of flowers and a magazine showing Maya Angelou on the cover lies outside a gate at the home of Angelou in Winston-Salem, N.C., Wednesday, May 28, 2014. Angelou, a Renaissance woman and cultural pioneer, has died, Wake Forest University said in a statement Wednesday. She was 86. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)