I was honored to sit in the presence of poet and teacher Dr. Maya Angelou (1928-2014) less than one year before her passing. I was a student at Wake Forest University, where Dr. Angelou had served as Reynolds Professor of American Studies since 1982. She was speaking at the launch of a campus-wide “Dignity and Respect Campaign.” In her keynote, which was characteristically filled with poetry and song and wisdom, Dr. Angelou repeated two refrains that stayed with me:

“The fantastic, most wonderful piece of news is that each of us has the possibility of being a rainbow in somebody’s cloud.”

“I am a human being. Nothing human can be alien to me.”

Through her life’s work — including more than 30 books of poetry and fiction, public speaking, dance and theater performances, advocacy and community building, and teaching — Dr. Angelou echoed these themes. She gave voice to the pain of exclusion, the possibility of shared belonging, and the importance of recognizing the human dignity and potential of all.

For Dr. Angelou, equity was essential to the promise of pluralism. “We all should know that diversity makes for a rich tapestry, and we must understand that all the threads of the tapestry are equal in value no matter what their color.” Her commitment to that vision was evident not only in her writing, but in her leadership in the civil rights movement and lifelong activism.

Dr. Angelou’s contributions to the American story were recognized when she was awarded the 2010 Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States’s highest civilian honor. During the award ceremony, President Barack Obama reflected, “By holding onto her humanity, she has inspired countless others who have known injustice and misfortune in their own lives.”

Dr. Maya Angelou was a rainbow in many people’s clouds.