Legends: Oprah Honored African American Women

By Jone Johnson Lewis, About.com Guide

Ruby Dee, best known as an actress, has also been a playwright, poet and activist. She was nominated for an Oscar for American Gangster (2007). Her iconic role was in A Raisin in the Sun (1961). She was married to the actor Ossie Davis for many years, and they had three sons. In 2005 Dee and Davis were honored with a Lifetime Achievement Freedom Award by the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee.

Here, she is among those African American women honored at Oprah Winfrey's 2005 The Legends Ball.