February 8th, 2021

Award winning film, television and stage actress, Cicely Tyson is best known for her embodiment of black woman hood. Tyson is often credited for inspiring black women to embrace their African features during a time where whitewashed beauty standards were most common.

Tyson was born in the borough of East Harlem, New York, to parents who had emigrated from Nevis, the smallest island in the Caribbean's Windward Island chain. As a teenager she took up typing jobs to help make ends meet before beginning to model. Tyson was then drawn to acting, though she had not been permitted to go to plays or movies as a child. When she got her first acting job, her religious mother felt that she was choosing a sinful path, and kicked her out of their home.

She soon began taking small acting roles with her first being a minor role in a NBC series called Frontiers of Faith. During her career Tyson was very particular in what roles she accepted as she only wanted to play characters with depth and meaning. She refused to play roles that she felt demeaning to black women or roles solely for a large paycheck, which made her sometimes struggle for work.

In Cicely Tyson’s most groundbreaking role was in a 1974 television movie called The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. She played a woman who was born into slavery and lived to participate in the civil rights movement in 1962 at the age of 110. She won two Emmys (Actress of the Year and Best Lead Actress in a Drama) as well as BAFTA (for Best Actress in a leading Role).

Tyson’s stint with successful roles continued as she starred in several acclaimed and highly appreciated television shows, including Roots, King,and The Marva Collins Story, each of which earned her an Emmy Awards nomination in various categories.