On Jan. 20, 1993, Maya Angelou became just the second poet to perform at a presidential inauguration, reciting “On the Pulse of Morning” for a crowd of 800,000 people in Washington, D.C. Angelou, who died at 86 on Wednesday, wrote the poem especially for the event, and she later won a Grammy for a recorded version. Watch the full performance above.
Video courtesy of the William J. Clinton Presidential Library.