In 2001, Halle Barry made history by being First black woman To ever win an Oscar for "Best Actress". She won for her role as Letizia Musgrov in Romantic drama film "Monster Ball". Barry was the favorite award for her attractive leading performance, but it was still difficult to believe that he would be able to break the victory of 70+ category actresses. It seemed like no one could believe in 2008 Barack Obama would become the first black president; Polls say he had a good blow, but conventional wisdom said differently.

"This moment is much bigger than me," Barry said in Her emotional speech. "This moment is for Dorothy Dandridge, Lena Horn and Diyhan Carroll. It's for women standing beside me, Jada Pinkett, Angela Bassett, Vivica Fox.

The same night he showed the award for best actor who went to Denzel Washington for his role in "Training Day". Washington was the second black actor to win the award, the second among the five black actors in total.

"Two birds in one night, huh, God is good," Washington said in his speech. He gave a shout to the first black actor who won the award, Sidney Postier, who was in the audience that night and had previously received an honorary prize for his long career in the industry: "40 years I chased Sidney (Peretier), they finally gave me what they gave me, what they gave me?

He triumphantly waved his trophy in the audience, and Washington held his own greeting.

Part of what made Barry's victory so triumphant, it was the assumption that the black women who received the prize would now become a more common event. Unfortunately, this has not happened: since 2025, she is still the only black that has ever conquered it, the fact that Barry finds a little depressed. "It forced me to ask myself, is it important?" Barry said In the recent documentary film "Apple TV+" "number one on the call sheet". She asked, "Did you really change something for women with color? For my sisters? For our trip?"

While 13 black actresses were nominated for the award in recent years, none of them won. "A few years ago, I was on the table with Andra Day and I was around the room by Viola Davis and both were nominated for Ellevous performances," Barry said. Andra Day is starring in "The United States Against Billy Holiday"," And Davis starred in the "Black bottom of Ma Raini. Barry revealed: "I felt 100% sure that this is a year one of them would go beyond this award. ... Both deserved it, and I thought for sure."

In 2016, people really began to notice that Barry's victory was a one -off thing, because it was the year when Oscar nominations reduced even whiter than usual even though they had no lack of black talent to choose. The reaction to the lack of variety in the Oscar nomes led to a trend of the "#Oscars" on Twitter and celebrities How Spike Lee boycotts the ceremony. "Saturday Night Live" even made a sketch of it, showing a prize -winning show where the actors were nominated in a white background, though black actors gave the true award -winning performances:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ospx7TXWYBI

The President of the Academy announced a statement after the controversy in 2016, announcing that they will be Slightly changing the rules To provide a more diverse pool of nominations that go forward. Sidney Postier had to wait 38 years to see another black man win the award; I hope Barry won't have to wait so long to see the same.