Beah Richards, born Beulah Elizabeth Richardson on July 12, 1920, in Vicksburg, Mississippi, was an American actress of stage, screen, and television. Her mother was a seamstress, and her father was a Baptist minister. She graduated from Dillard University in New Orleans in 1948 and moved to New York City two years later to pursue her acting career.

Beah Richards began her career in 1955 when she portrayed an 84-year-old grandmother in the off-Broadway show "Take a Giant Step." She often played the role of a mother or grandmother and continued acting her entire life.

She appeared in the original Broadway productions of "Purlie Victorious," "The Miracle Worker," and "A Raisin in the Sun." As a writer, she wrote the verse performance piece "A Black Woman Speaks," a collection of 14 poems, in which she pointed out that white women played an important role in oppressing women of color.

The play's first performance was in 1950 for the organization Women for Peace, a white women's organization in Chicago. Her first play was written in 1951 titled "One Is a Crowd" about a black singer who seeks revenge on a white man who destroyed her family.

It was not produced until decades later. From the 1930s to the late 1950s, Richards was a member and organizer with the Communist Party USA in Los Angeles after befriending artist Paul Robeson.

She is among the Black women who "actively participated in movements affiliated with the CPUSA" between 1917's Bolshevik Revolution and Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev's 1956 revelations. She was later a sponsor of the National United Committee to Free Angela Davis.

Beah Richards was known professionally as Beah Richards, and is also referred to in several sources as Bea Richards. Notable movie appearances include "The Amen Corner" (1965), "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" (1967), "Hurry Sundown," "The Great White Hope," "Beloved," and "In the Heat of the Night."

She appeared in "Roots: The Next Generations" as Cynthia Murray Palmer, the grandmother of Alex Haley. She made numerous guest television appearances, including roles on "Beauty and the Beast," "The Bill Cosby Show," "227," "Sanford and Son," "Benson," "Designing Women," "The Facts of Life," "The Practice," "Murder, She Wrote," "The Big Valley," and "ER" (as Dr. Peter Benton's mother).

Beah Richards was married to African-American sculptor Hugh Harrell Jr. from 1962 to 1966. She passed away on September 14, 2000, due to emphysema, a few days after receiving her Emmy Award for her role in "The Practice." Throughout her career, she portrayed over 40 roles on television and nearly 40 roles in film, leaving behind a remarkable legacy in the entertainment industry.

She was honored with the Paul Robeson Pioneer Award and was inducted into the NAACP Image Awards Hall of Fame. Her poem "Keep Climbing, Girls" has been turned into a picture book inspiring girls' power, published in 2006 by Simon & Schuster.