An Actress and Civil-Rights Icon for the Ages

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Cicely Tyson’s legacy in arts and entertainment feels infinite – as if she has always been there and always will be. Tyson, an almost divine figure for generations of fans, peers and students who died on January 28 at the age of 96, combined brilliant dramatic performances with an heightened sensitivity. She engaged in roles that she felt in some way as a sublime black woman, and although this sometimes led to periods of inactivity, it sustained a work as significant as it was gripping.

She was born on December 19, 1924 in Harlem, the daughter of immigrants from the island of Nevis. Growing up in a pious episcopal household, she was even forbidden to go to the cinema.

After being casually told to try modeling, Tyson appeared on a hair show and enrolled at Barbara Watson Modeling School. Soon after, she quit her job as a secretary for the American Red Cross and quickly became one of the best black models in the country. She later admitted that her time modeling was unfulfilled: “I felt like a machine,” she told Time Magazine.

Modeling was also just a stepping stone. While waiting for an appointment with Ebony Magazine’s fashion editor, Tyson was discovered by actress Evelyn Davis. Tyson said, “As I was walking by, she looked at me and said, ‘Lord, what a face! ‘She said I was perfect for a movie in production called The Spectrum. It was about the problems between fair-skinned and dark-skinned blacks. I auditioned for the role and I got it. In fact, the film was never released because the money ran out – but here I am. “

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Her decision to act enraged her deeply religious mother and resulted in years of estrangement between them.

Tyson studied under such theater greats as Lee Strasberg, Lloyd Richards and Vinnette Carroll. In 1961, she joined the now legendary cast of the original off-Broadway production of Jean Genet’s The Blacks, which featured a number of actors who became household names at various times.

The story goes on

“This piece spawned Maya Angelou, me, Roscoe Lee Browne, James Earl Jones, Godfrey Cambridge (playwright Charles) Gordone, who won the Pulitzer Prize (for No Place to be Somebody). Every notable black actor survived this show, ”Tyson said in a 1995 interview. “It ran for three years, and in the course of its existence we would all go and go and do other things and come back. I’ve been there four times. “

Tyson starred alongside George C. Scott as a social worker in the 1963 television series East Side / West Side. For the first time an African American actor played a major role in a major television series.

Performance was a platform for Tyson. She used this platform to address civil rights issues at a time when the country was raging through turbulent change. “I was on stage. Every piece I’ve made had to do with the civil rights movement. Every single piece addressed it. “Your natural hair, shown on TV and in films, has been a revelation and revolution; She became the icon of a burgeoning movement for black women. As a prominent darker skinned woman, her visibility flew in the face of the persistent colorism, always associated with the systemic racism that black actresses were exposed to in Hollywood.

Tyson spent the 60s in several short Broadway shows before starring Portia in the 1968 film adaptation of The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter. Another notable role came in 1972 when she played Rebecca Morgan in Martin Ritt’s Sounder, a performance that earned her an Oscar nomination. And in 1974 she delivered a career-defining performance in the television film The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, an adaptation of the novel by Ernest J. Gaines. Tyson received raves and two Emmy Awards for her portrayal of the life of a former slave.

An interviewer once told Tyson that she didn’t know black people had loving sexual relationships until she saw Sounder. The actress was surprised by the calloused ignorance in the statement. “When I calmed down, I asked her, ‘You thought we were less than humans?'” Tyson said.

She said the interviewer’s defense is that she never knew black adults or went to school with African Americans.

“Your fault for me is your innocence,” Tyson said, summarizing it briefly.

Tyson would take on other supporting roles in classic television mini-series. notably in the highly rated television adaptation of Alex Haleys Roots in 1977; and in the 1989 Miniseries The Women of Brewster Place, produced by Oprah Winfrey, based on Gloria Naylor’s novel. She won another Emmy for her appearance in the 1994 television movie Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All and starred in a 1998 television adaptation of Haley’s mom, Flora’s family. During the 2010s, she had recurring roles on popular television series such as House of Cards and How to Get Away with Murder. Tyson won the Tony Award for Best Actress in One Play for her performance as Miss Carrie Watts in The Trip to Bountiful.

Tyson was nominated for only one Oscar in her career, but received an Honorary Oscar for Lifetime Achievement from the Academy in 2018. When Tyson was asked about the Academy’s attempts to nominate and reward actors and filmmakers more heavily, it was open.

United States President Barack Obama presents actress Cicely Tyson with the Presidential Medal of Freedom during an East Room ceremony at the White House on November 22, 2016 in Washington, DC