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Other hardships would come in her life, including unmarried motherhood at age 17. But so did many triumphs as a writer, poet, singer, dancer, actor, movie director and activist with both Malcolm X and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., among other leaders.

Her legacy to literature is immense. Before "Caged Bird," Richard Wright's "Black Boy" and Claude Brown's "Manchild in the Promised Land" reigned on most radar screen as quintessential stories of growing up black in Twentieth Century America. At a time when the women's rights movement was beginning its current revival, she quietly offered a female-centered vision that enriched everyone's view of black life in America. She also offered a model to everyone of perseverance against great odds and despite the burdens of earlier trauma.

With its graphic story of Maya Angelou's rape and her self-imposed silence, "Caged Bird" sounds like a likely candidate for "trigger warnings," which would offer students a no-questions-asked excuse to avoid it. Yet, by immersing us in her own traumatic memories, Angelou skillfully suggests the healing and inspiring spirit of renewal and perseverance -- as captured in her famous poem "Still I Rise." It begins:

You may write me down in history

With your bitter, twisted lies,

You may tread me in the very dirt

But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Right on. Efforts to make classrooms more comfortable for everybody are commendable, but they should not inhibit everyone's ability to cope with the world as it is.

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E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@tribune.com.

(c) 2014 CLARENCE PAGE DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.