This book was released in honor of Banned Book Week 2005. It is number 3 on The 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–2000 list (available at http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedbooksweek/bbwlinks/100mostfrequently.htm).

I first saw Maya Angelou on a program with Bill Moyers. As part of the program, they had gone back to Stamps, Arkansas and Ms. Angelou was showing him places where she had grown up. However, when they came to the place where they would cross over from the black section of town into the white section of town, she couldn't do it. I was dumbfounded that after so many years and so much writing about her life she still couldn't cross an invisible line. I knew then that the scars went all the way through her. That kind of pain is beyond anything most people can imagine, but it is important for everyone to realize that for some people it is real and never to be forgotten.

RELEASE NOTES:

I usually leave books on the water fountain in the corridor to the left of the lobby.