Cicely Tyson fans filled Manhattan’s West 138th Street to pay their respects to the late barrier-breaking actress Monday, as the performer lay in repose in a Harlem church.
A memorial for Tyson, who died on Jan. 28 at the age of 96, was held at the Abyssinian Baptist Church, where she was a longtime member of the congregation.
Admirers came from as far as the West Coast and waited in line for more than an hour in the wintry weather to say their final farewell.
Harlem resident Janie Nesbitt, 56, said she was inspired by Tyson’s decision to only play roles that only showed black women in a positive light.
“When ‘Roots’ came out in the 70s, my neighborhood was mesmerized,” said Nesbitt, the Manhattan borough president of the African American Benevolent Society of the NYC Department of Sanitation.
“You know how during the pandemic, the streets got quiet? That’s how it was, when ‘Roots’ was on for those eight days, no one moved.”
“I met so many people today on the line that came from far and wide. People sang, it was a really nice homecoming,” Nesbitt said.
Lifelong fan Korey Small, 40, said he made arrangements to travel from California as soon as he heard about the Harlem viewing.
“Growing up watching her movies, she was very positive, taught me a lot especially as a young black man,” Small said.
“Her messages were very powerful in the movies, and I just carried that with me through life. I’m in love with her and I followed her throughout her career so I just had to come pay my respects,” Small told the Post.
COVID-19 mandates including masks and social distancing requirements were in place at the memorial.
A private, invitation-only viewing and memorial service will be held Tuesday, followed by a private burial service, open only to family.
The pioneering icon of television, film and Broadway was revered for her honest and stereotype-defying portrayals of strong black women — winning her a Tony, an honorary Oscar, multiple Emmys and NAACP Image Awards, a Critics’ Choice Award and a SAG Award.
Her incredible career spanned seven decades.
In 2016, Tyson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award.
Born in New York City in 1924, Tyson sold shopping bags on the streets of East Harlem as a child.
She was discovered by a fashion editor at Ebony Magazine and rose to the top of the modeling world before transitioning to acting. Tyson made her television debut on NBC’s “Frontiers of Faith” in 1951.
The stage soon beckoned and Tyson co-starred in the play “The Blacks: A Clown Show,” with James Earl Jones and Maya Angelou, earning critical acclaim Off-Broadway before landing an Oscar nomination for Best Actress for her role as sharecropper’s wife in the 1972 film “Sounder.”
Tyson was lauded for her televised depiction of a 110-year-old former slave in the 1974 drama “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman,” and won a Tony award late in her career for her work in the 2013 production of “The Trip to Bountiful.”
A new generation of moviegoers was introduced to the legendary actress and former model in the 2011 box office smash, “The Help.”
“I’m very selective as I’ve been my whole career about what I do. Unfortunately, I’m not the kind of person who works only for money. It has to have some real substance for me to do it,” she told the Associated Press in 2013.
Tyson — who was once married to jazz legend Miles Davis — released her memoir “Just As I Am,” days before her Jan. 28 death.
With Post wires
