Barack Obama has led the tributes in the honor of iconic poet, author and activist Maya Angelou and called her "the brightest light of their times".
The US president said that Angelou, who has died aged 86, was a "a brilliant writer, a fierce friend and a truly phenomenal woman", the BBC reported.
The activist had made her name with the memoir 'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings', which charted a childhood of oppression and abuse in the Deep South in the 1930s.
Obama, who gave her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011, said that over the course of her remarkable life, Angelou was many things - an author, poet, civil rights activist, playwright, actress, director, composer, singer and dancer.
He stated that above all she was a storyteller and her greatest stories were true, and that a childhood of suffering and abuse actually drove her to stop speaking, but the voice she found helped generations of Americans find their rainbow amidst the clouds, and inspired the rest of the people to be our best selves.
In a statement made on Facebook, Angelou's family said that she passed away quietly at home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and was "a warrior for equality, tolerance and peace".