Before 'Roots' Mini-Series Explored Black History, there was the 'Miss Jane Pittman' TV-Movie

Photo byClassic TV Preservation Society

Before the original, groundbreaking small-screen mini-series Roots (ABC, 1977) explored Black History in depth and with compassion, there was the trailblazing TV-movie, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (CBS, 1974).

A Closer Look

The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman began in 1971 as a novel by Ernest J. Gaines. The narrative relays the challenges of African-Americans based on the personal experiences of a Black woman named Jane Pittman. She shares her life story from when she was a young slave in the American South at the end of the Civil War.

In 1974, CBS adapted the novel into an award-winning TV-movie in a story that culminates with Miss Pittman joining the Civil Rights Movement in 1962 at age 110.

The film was directed by John Korty, written by Tracey Keenan Wynn, executive produced by Roger Gimbel, and starred Cicely Tyson (who had played mother to Levar Burton's Kunte Kinte in Roots).

The movie also featured actors Michael Murphy, Richard Dysart, Katherine Helmond, and Odetta. Filmed in Baton Rouge, Louisian, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman became notable for the realistic aging make-up that was applied to Tyson.

Tyson, who died in 2021 at 96 years old, received two of the nine Emmys the film won: Best Actress of the Year and Best Lead Actress in a Drama. The remaining awards included John Horty for Best Directing in a Dram, and Keenan Wynn for Best Writing in Drama.

Photo byFamousPeople.com

More About the Actress Who Played Miss Pittman

Cicely Tyson was born in Harlem, New York City, where she was raised by her devoutly religious parents, who had come from the Caribbean island of Nevis. Her mother Theodosia was a domestic worker and her her father William was a carpenter and painter.

Tyson was discovered by a fashion editor at Ebony Magazine, and with her stunning looks she quickly rose to the top of the modeling industry.

From December 1942 to 1945, Tyson was married to Kenneth Franklin. During that time, she gave birth to a daughter, whom she addressed publically as as "Joan."

Before and after The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, Tyson was praised for countless other TV, film and stage performances. She had appeared in big-screen movies like Sounder (for which she was Oscar-nominated in 1972), The Help (, and severaal of Tyler Perry's productions.

In 1957 Tyson began acting in Off-Broadway productions. In 1963 she became the first African American star of a TV drama in the series East Side/West Side, playing the role of secretary Jane Foster.

In 1968, Tyson was cast as Portia in The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter. Four years after that, she was Oscar-nominated for her big-screen performance in Sounder. In 1977, she was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame. In 1983, she was the lead on Broadway in The Corn Is Green, a play set in a Welsh mining town.

In the 1980s, Tyson was married music icon Miles Davis, who she had known years before, and they had no children.

Three decades later, Tyson returned to Broadway and became the oldest living person to win a coveted Tony Award for her leading role in Horton Foote's The Trip to Bountiful (for which she 2014 later did the film adaptation).

In 1994 the actress nabbed her third Emmy in her supporting role as housemaid Castalia in CBS' miniseries television adaptation of the Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All.

On August 21, 1997, Tyson received a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7080 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.

Twenty years following, she appeared in director Richard Linklater's film Last Flag Flying, which was adapted from the 2005 novel of the same name.

On November 23rd 2016, Tyson was awarded the prestigious Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama for her contribution to the arts and American culture.

The Cicely L. Tyson Community School of Performing & Fine Arts, named in her honor, is located in East Orange, New Jersey. The acclaimed actress visited the school frequently, periodically instructed a master class in acting.