โJust as I Am is my truth. It is me,ย plain and unvarnished, with the glitterย and garland set aside. In theseย pages, I am indeed Cicely, the actressย who has been blessed to grace theย stage and screen for six decades. Yetย I am also the church girl who onceย rarely spoke a word. I am the teenagerย who sought solace in the versesย of the old hymn for which this bookย is named. I am a daughter and aย mother, a sister and a friend. I am anย observer of human nature and theย dreamer of audacious dreams. I amย a woman who has hurt as immeasurablyย as I have loved, a child of Godย divinely guided by his hand. Andย here in my ninth decade, I am aย woman who, at long last, has somethingย meaningful to say.โย โCicely Tyson
Ms. Cicely Tyson is an actress, lecturer, activist, and one of the most respected talents in American theater and film history. From her starring role on Broadway in The Blacks (1961), to the Emmy-nominated 1999 HBO film A Lesson Before Dying, her work has garnered critical and commercial applause for more than sixty years. Her two Emmys for The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman made her the first African-American woman to win an Emmy for Best Actress. In 2013, Ms. Tyson won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her performance as Miss Carrie Watts in The Trip to Bountiful. A capstone achievement came in 2018, when she became the first Black woman to receive an honorary Oscar. The Board of Governors voted unanimously to honor her with the award, which came 45 years after her Academy Award nominated performance in Sounder.