On 29 January 2021, pioneering African-American actor Cicely Tyson died at the age of 96. With a career that spanned over seven decades, she became an inspiration to many young, Black actors because of her refusal to play typecast roles that perpetuated negative stereotypes about women and people of color.

She is best known for hit films, such asThe Help (2011) and Diary of a Mad Black Woman (2011), and the TV shows How To Get Away With Murder and Roots. Oprah Winfrey cited: "She used her career to illuminate the humanity of Black people. The roles she played reflected her values; she never compromised."

Only two days before Tyson's death she released the memoir Just As I Am, which reflects on her well-lived life, professional career, and relationship with jazz legend Miles Davis.

In 2020, she was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame and in 2016 she was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by then-President Barack Obama. In a tweet after the announcement of her death, Obama wrote: "Cicely Tyson was one of the rare award-winning actors whose work on the screen was surpassed only by what she was able to accomplish off of it. She had a heart unlike any other—and for 96 years, she left a mark on the world that few will ever match."