Cicely Tyson was announced as a recipient of the Peabody Career Achievement Award, honoring her sustained contributions to storytelling.
On June 10, 2020, it was announced that Cicely Tyson would receive the Peabody Career Achievement Award, one of the most prestigious honors in electronic media, recognizing a lifetime of contributions to storytelling and representation in television and film.
This award celebrated Tyson's entire body of work, from her groundbreaking 1963 role in East Side/West Side through her Emmy-winning performances and her continued acting work in her nineties, including recent television appearances that introduced her artistry to new generations of viewers.
The Peabody Awards, known for honoring storytelling that illuminates and gives voice to underrepresented communities, recognized Tyson as an exemplar of using media to advance meaningful representation of Black Americans across seven decades of profound social change.
Coming just months before her death, this award served as one of the final major career honors bestowed upon Tyson during her lifetime, capping a remarkable late-career renaissance that saw her receive numerous accolades reflecting a full public reckoning with her historic contributions to American media.