'BET Honors' the cable network's annual celebration of African Americans who have achieved greatness in music, the arts and education, returns this February for the fourth consecutive year.

Academy Award-winning actor, comedian and singer Jamie Foxx; model and entrepreneur Iman; Emmy Award-winning thespian Cicely Tyson; Grammy Award-winning musician and composer Herbie Hancock; Chairman of Johnson Publishing Company, the home of Ebony and Jet magazine, Linda Johnson Rice; and historian, educator and founding director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture, Lonnie Bunch have been chosen as the six honorees who will be honored in the special Black History Month telecast.

Actress Gabrielle Union is back for the third time to host the festivities, which will take place at Warner Theater in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 15.

Performers have yet to be announced for the telecast, but Jennifer Hudson, Mary J. Blige, Patti LaBelle, Stevie Wonder and India.Arie were a few of the notable artists who paid tribute to Whitney Houston, Queen Latifah, Sean 'Diddy' Combs, Ruth Simmons and Keith Black at last year's BET Honors ceremony.

In a new initiative, BET will donate the proceeds from this year's BET Honors private ticket sales to the Washington, D.C. Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation.

'BET Honors' premieres on Feb.21 at 9 pm EST.

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