WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) - Wake Forest University has named a new dorm in honor of poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou.

The university held the ribbon-cutting and dedication ceremony Friday for 'Maya Angelou Hall'.

Angelou’s grandson says the former professor, poet, author, and civil rights activist would be happy to be honored this way.

"She'd love it for the students coming here, to have community, have family have friendships.  That's what really made her smile.  The fact that there's going to be kids hanging out in this room one day, playing cards and reading books, that is what she lived for,” said Elliot Jones, grandson of Maya Angelou.

Angelou was an American Studies professor at the university in Winston-Salem up until her death in 2014, teaching classes like “Race, Politics and Literature,” “African Culture and Impact on U.S.” and “Race in the Southern Experience.”

Angelou also wrote several books including “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” and was an actress and civil rights pioneer.

In 2002, Wake Forest opened the Maya Angelou Center for Health Equity to study racial and ethnic disparities in health care.