American poet and author Maya Angelou, who lived through and helped chronicle the civil rights movement in the U.S., has died at the age of 86 following a brief decline in health.

Born in Marguerite Annie Johnson in St Louis, Missouri in 1928, Angelou is perhaps best known for her series of autobiographical memoirs, including ‘I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings’ published in 1969 that tells her childhood story of living in the Jim Crow south.

“You have to really have grit if you are to grow up and survive in Arkansas,” Angelou once said of her experience growing up amid racism and repression.

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Her death, according to the New York Times, was confirmed by her longtime literary agent, Helen Brann.

In its obituary of the poet, the Times describes how