Some of you will know of what I speak…..most of you won’t …You have skin of the darkest hue. You have been conditioned to believe that there are no people on the planet as ignorant and ugly as you. You live in a part of the world built on the blood and corpses and the muscle of your people. You are taught from the cradle to the grave that people who look and think like the people who used to own you are the rightful kings and queens of the earth. You learn to hate the darkness of your skin….despise the kind of hair you have.. Every where you look there are signs telling you you can’t come in …or you are not wanted…People are free to murder you and easily get away with it. You develop a culture where the worst insult a person can say is “YOU BLACK”. You even come to think maybe this is normal. Then one day you become aware of a person with what could very well be the most beautiful face you have ever or maybe will ever see. The society you live in uses her to sell clothing …a stunning beautiful clothes hanger. But she is the darkest of Black..and although totally African her beauty simply can not be denied . Soon she begins to wear her hair in it’s natural state. Little dark girls slowly begin to take on this “natural” hair style. “She is beautiful , Black and her hair is natural….I can be too”..Cicely Tyson let a “Jeannie Out of the Bottle” that could not be put back in ..She taught a whole generation that not only was our skin beautiful …but our hair…the hair of a great people was a wonderful thing..She left modeling and dared to take on the theater , film and television..blazing a trail each and every time, and she was not just good looking she brought excellence.. It was like God put her here during the civil rights movement ..just to show us what we could be…And she was not a “Diva” …sucking the air out of every room she is in and jealous of any other performer NO..She put out her hand and encouraged more than one generation of little black girls …little brown girls and young performers of every persuasion to be proud ..to work hard…and make a way for the people coming next. She didn’t just let them name a school after her…she made sure she was a part of the lives of all the students and supported them when they went out into the world ..Cicely was bigger than just a movie star…she was a People Builder…who came into our lives just when we needed her..There are so many people talking about her that I don’t need to number her works…I think it’s what she meant to us that is more important..Rest Cicely Tyson….job well done
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