Denzel Washington and Halle Berry share an important moment in Oscars history

In 2001, Halle Berry made history by becoming… The first black woman To win the Academy Award for “Best Actress”. She won it for her role in the film Leticia Musgrove Romantic drama film “Monster’s Ball”. Berry was the favorite to win the award for her leading performance, but it was still hard to believe that she would be able to break the streak of a white actress who has won in more than 70 categories. It was as if no one could believe in 2008 that Barack Obama would become the first black president; Opinion polls indicate he has a good chance, but conventional wisdom says otherwise.

“This moment is so much bigger than me,” Perry said. Her emotional speech. “This moment is dedicated to Dorothy Dandridge, Lena Horne, and Diahann Carroll. It’s for the women standing next to me, Jada Pinkett, Angela Bassett, Vivica Fox. And it’s for every nameless, faceless woman of color who now has a chance because tonight that door has opened. Thank you. I’m so proud.”

That same night, Denzel Washington won the Best Actor award for his role in “Training Day.” Washington was the second black actor to win the award, and the second of five black actors.

“Two birds in one night, huh? Oh my God, Washington.” He said in his speech. He exclaimed to the first black actor to win the award, Sidney Poitier, who was in the audience that night and had earlier received an honorary award for his long career in the industry: “40 years I’ve been chasing Sidney (Poitier), they finally gave it to me, what did they do? They gave it to him the same night. I’ll always chase you, Sidney. I’ll always follow in your footsteps. There’s nothing I can do.” Please do so, sir.”

Poitier waved his trophy triumphantly at the crowd, and Washington raised his award in salute.

Part of what made Perry’s win feel so triumphant was the assumption that black women winning the award would now become a more common occurrence. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen: as of 2025, she remains the only black woman to have ever won it, a fact that Perry finds a bit depressing. “It forced me to ask myself, ‘Did it matter?’ Perry He said In the recent Apple TV+ documentary “Number One on the Calling List.” “Does this really change anything for women of color? For my sisters? For our journey,” she asked.

While 13 black actresses were nominated for the award in the years that followed, none won. “A few years ago, I was at the table with Andra Day, and I was across from Viola Davis in the other room, and they were both nominated for Outstanding Performance,” Perry said. Andra Day starred in the film “The United States vs. Billie Holiday”,” Davis starred in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.”“. Perry revealed, “I felt 100% confident that this was the year one of them would get this award. … They both deserve it, and I definitely think so.”

In 2016, people really started to notice that Perry’s win was a one-time thing, because that was the year the Oscar nominations skewed whiter than usual despite having no shortage of black talent to choose from. Backlash over the lack of diversity in the Oscars nominations has led to the hashtag “#OscarsSoWhite” appearing on Twitter, and on celebrities. Like Spike Lee, who boycotted the concert. “Saturday Night Live” even did a sketch about it, depicting an awards show where they kept nominating white actors even though the black actors at the forefront were giving the real awards-worthy performances:

The academy’s president issued a statement after the 2016 controversy, announcing that they would be Change the rules a little To ensure a more diverse pool of nominations in the future. Sidney Poitier had to wait 38 years to see another black man win the award; Hopefully Perry doesn’t have to wait long to see the same.