by Cicely Tyson
Best known for her double Emmy performance (Best Lead Actress in a Drama, and a special, unprecedented Emmy for Actress of the Year) as Jane in The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, Ms. Tyson was also nominated for an Emmy in 2015, 2017, 2019, and 2020, for her recurring guest role as Ophelia, Annalise’s mother (Viola Davis) in ABC’s How to Get Away with Murder. She received her third Emmy for The Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All and was nominated for her performances in Roots, King, Sweet Justice, The Marva Collins Story, and A Lesson Before Dying.
In January 2020, Ms. Tyson was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame. She is among the elite number of entertainers honored with a star on the Hollywood Boulevard Walk of Fame. Ms. Tyson was recognized for her contribution to the performing arts at the 2015 Kennedy Center Honors. In addition, she is the recipient of the NAACP’s highest honor, the prestigious Spingarn Medal. In 2016, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award of the United States.
Ms. Tyson was nominated for an Academy Award for Sounder. Her film credits include The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, Fried Green Tomatoes, Because of Winn-Dixie, Hoodlum, Diary of a Mad Black Woman, Madea’s Family Reunion, Why Did I Get Married Too?, The Help, Alex Cross, Last Flag Flying, and in 2020, A Fall from Grace directed by Tyler Perry. On November 18, 2018, Ms. Tyson received an Honorary Oscar at the Motion Picture Academy’s Governors Awards.
Since 1995, Ms. Tyson has served as the guiding force of the Cicely L. Tyson Community School of Performing and Fine Arts. This $143 million institution of academic and creative expression in East Orange, New Jersey, serves twelve hundred students from kindergarten through twelfth grade. As both a screen legend and a cultural icon, Ms. Tyson continues to develop her art by taking on new roles and opportunities.
MICHELLE BURFORD served as Ms. Cicely Tyson’s collaborative writer. She is a number one New York Times bestselling author who has collaborated on ten memoirs. She is also a founding editor of O, The Oprah Magazine and a former Essence magazine editor. A native of Phoenix, she resides in New York City.
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Copyright
Excerpt here from “Strange Fruit,” recorded by Abel Meeropol in 1937.
Excerpt here from “Paul Robeson” by Gwendolyn Brooks.
Excerpt here from “Ailey, Baldwin, Floyd, Killens, and Mayfield” by Maya Angelou from I Shall Not Be Moved. Bantam, 1991.
JUST AS I AM. Copyright © 2021 by Cicely Tyson. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Cover photograph: © Snowdon
Cover design: Stephen Brayda
FIRST EDITION
Digital Edition JANUARY 2021 ISBN: 978-0-06-293108-5
Version 12182020
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-293106-1
About the Publisher
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Contents
Cover
Title Page
Frontispiece
Dedication
Foreword: A Mighty Seed by Viola Davis
Introduction: This Life
Part One: Planted 1: The Vow
2: String Bean
3: Church Girl
4: Transitions
5: The Other America
6: Unspoken
7: Ground Shifts
8: Divinely Guided
9: Shoulder Taps
10: Center Stage
Part Two: Rooted 11: Riverside Park
12: Going Natural
13: 1968
14: Rebecca
15: Jane Pittman
16: Endings and Beginnings
17: The Ladder
18: Roots
19: Thanksgiving Day
20: Threadbare
21: Lesson Before Dying
Part Three: Bountiful 22: A Strong Harvest
23: Trip to Bountiful
24: When Great Trees Fall
25: Just as I Am
Acknowledgments
Index
Photo Section
About the Authors
Copyright
About the Publisher