Maya Angelou - a life in pictures

1957: Angelou is dressed for her part in the Caribbean Calypso Festival. In this year, at the request of Martin Luther King, she became the northern coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Photograph: Everett Collection/Rex Features

1972: The film, Georgia, Georgia, about a black American singer in Sweden was released this year. Angelou wrote the screenplay, which was adapted from one of her stories. Photograph: Everett Collection/Rex Features

1997: Maya Angelou (right) and Coretta Scott King (left), widow of Martin Luther King, on a visit to Betty Shabazz, the widow of civil rights activist Malcom X, at Jacobi Hospital in the Bronx, New York. Photograph: Jon Levy/AFP/Getty Images

1998: Angelou's film Down in the Delta was released. Here she is at work on the film, about a druggy single mother from Chicago who finds redemption in rural Mississippi. Photograph: Sipa Press/Rex Features

2000: US President Bill Clinton congratulates Angelou after presenting her with the National Medal of Arts during ceremonies at Constitution Hall in Washington, DC. Photograph: Stephen Jaffe/AFP/Getty Images

2004: Angelou addresses the Democratic National Convention in Boston, Massachusetts. Photograph: Hector Mata/AFP/Getty Images

2006: Maya Angelou, photographed in London, where she was talking with Madhur Jafrey about their mutual passion for food. Photograph: Graeme Robertson for the Guardian

2008: Angelou laughs along with Hillary Clinton during a campaign stop at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Her support for Clinton's election campaign led to her being dubbed the 'campaign laureate'. Photograph: Chuck Burton/AP

2010: Angelou celebrates her 82nd birthday with friends and family at her home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Photograph: Steve Exum/Getty Images

2011: President Barack Obama kisses Angelou after presenting to her the Medal of Freedom at the White House in Washington. . Photograph: Tim Sloan/AFP/Getty Images

2011: Oprah Winfrey (right) laughs with Angelou during the taping of Oprah's Surprise Spectacular, in Chicago. Photograph: John Gress/Reuters

2012: Angelou is flanked by Michelle Obama (left) and (left to right) Maya Willow Smith, Cicely Tyson, Queen Latifah and Jill Scott on stage at the BET Honors 2012 at the Warner Theatre on January 14 in Washington, DC. She received a literary arts award from Obama. Watch her acceptance speech here. Photograph: Paul Morigi/WireImage

2013: Angelou, with artists Carol Iselin, David Sugar, at an exhibition of their collected works at ACA Galleries, New York. Photograph: Madison McGaw/BFAnyc.com/REX