by Kashyah Williams

Legendary actor Cicely Tyson was honored at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood on April 28. The 93-year-old actor, who has been in the entertainment industry for over 6 decades, pressed her hands and footprints into cement. Tyson arrived in style wearing a white and grey two-piece set with a three-tone ombré bob.

Tyson is a prominent figure in the entertainment industry. Her accolades include Emmys, NAACP awards, Screen Actors Guild Awards, Golden Globe nomination, as well as the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The icon has graced both the cinema and television screen with many groundbreaking roles. Some films that she has starred in include Carbi Gold, A Man Called Adam, Sounder, Hoodlum, and The Help. She has guest starred in television shows such as How to Get Away with Murder, Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, and Netflix original: House of Cards.

Tyson landed the front cover of Jet magazine in 1973 wearing a traditional African braid hairstyle. She served as an inspirational and “poster” woman for the afro-textured natural hair movement in the 1960s. Black women began to embrace their natural hair and rejected society’s beauty standards.

Actor, producer, director Tyler Perry accompanied Ms. Tyson at the TCL Chinese Theatre. His caption for his Instagram post in honor of Tyson’s honor said “Congratulations Ms. Tyson, forever immortalized at the TCL @chinesetheaters forecourt. You so deserve it. What a life and journey, We all love you! And thank you @turnerclassicmovies.” Tyson has been a part of many of Perry’s films such as Madea’s Family Reunion, Diary of a Mad Black Woman, Alex Cross, and Why Did I Get Married Too?

Tyson once said many years ago that she marveled at the pictures of the hands and footprints of stars at the theater. “Never dreaming that one day I would be doing the same,” she said during the ceremony. She said she never wavered from pursuing her destiny. “To come to this moment only because I believed he [God] was going to direct me.” Tyson has earned much respect for rejecting roles that she believed showed women and African-Americans in a negative light and for that fans adore her.