She was one of the only full-time African American professors on staff at the university.
In the last decades of her life, Angelou accepted the lifetime Reynolds Professorship of American Studies. She was one of the only full-time African American professors on staff at the university. The late 1990s and early 2000s saw Angelou campaigning with democratic candidates such as Hilary Clinton and directing her first film, Down in the Delta. Maya Angelou, the best of 20th-century American poets, died in May of 2014 after a period of bad health.