Award winning actress and civil rights activist Ruby Dee died on June 11, at her home in New Rochelle, New York, according to her representative, Michael Livingston. She was 91.

Ruby Ann Wallace, born on October 1922 in Cleveland, Ohio, was perhaps best known for her role as Ruth Younger opposite Sidney Poitier in the film adaptation of A Raisin in the Sun in 1961, where she won Best Supporting Actress in the National Board of Review, and as Denzel Washington's character's mother, Mama Lucas in American Gangster that earned her a nomination for Best Supporting Actress and won her a Screen Actors Guild Award.

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During her career, she was nominated for 8 Emmy awards and won once for her role in the TV film Decoration Day. She was also awarded a Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album together with husband, actor Ossie Davis for their joint biopic, With Ossie And Ruby: In This Life Together.

Dee was also a well-known civil rights activist, together with her late husband whom she married in 1948. They were married for 56 years until Davis' death in 2005.

The couple had co-emceed the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963 and had collaborated in a few projects including films, Do the Right Thing in 1989 and Jungle Fever in 1991, which were both directed by Spike Lee.

They were also close friends with human rights activists, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr.

In March 1999, Dee and Davis were arrested together with 69 others after staging a protest for the shooting of an unarmed African outside the New York City police department.

She was a member of various civil rights and humanitarian groups including the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

Close friends and admirers of the actress took to Twitter to express their condolences and to honor her memory.

"We Lost A Jewel Today, Mrs Ruby Dee, So Great, So Loved! R.I.P. All sympathy to her family," co-star Samuel L. Jackson wrote.

First lady Michelle Obama tweeted, "Deeply saddened to hear of Ruby Dee's passing. I'll never forget seeing her in "Do the Right Thing" on my first date with Barack."

Likewise, director Spike Lee wrote about his sadness upon finding out the sad news of Dee's passing, referring to the latter as a "Spiritual Mother".

Gil Robertson IV of the African American Film Critics Association honored Dee's work and said in a statement, "The members of the African American Film Critics Association are deeply saddened at the loss of actress and humanitarian Ruby Dee. Throughout her seven-decade career, Ms. Dee embraced different creative platforms with her various interpretations of black womanhood and also used her gifts to champion for Human Rights. Her strength, courage and beauty will be greatly missed."

Dee is survived by her 3 children, Nora Day Davis, Hasna Muhammad Davis and Guy Davis.

TagsMalcolm X, Michael Livingston, Sidney Poitier, Denzel Washington, American Gangster, A Raisin in the Sun, Decoration Day, Ossie Davis, With Ossie And Ruby: In This Life Together, Spike Lee, Michelle Obama, Samuel L. Jackson, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Congress of Racial Equality, CORE, Human Rights, civil rights, activism, humanitarian, Obituary, entertainment news, African American Film Critics Association, March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Jungle Fever, Do The Right Thing, Nora Day Davis, Guy Davis, Hasna Muhammad Davis