Angela Bassett’s Oscars Speech Is A Powerful Reminder That It’s Been Two Decades Since A Black Woman Has Won A Best Actress Oscar

Angela Bassett had some powerful words for the Academy while accepting her honorary Oscar Award at the 14th Governors Awards on January 9, 2024.

Bassett’s honorary award stirred controversy when it was announced in June, given the actor’s loss at last year’s Oscars ceremony to Jamie Lee Curtis for Best Actress.

Many believed Bassett, who has never won an Oscar, deserved greater recognition from the Academy and that the honorary award felt like the awards body overcompensating for their long history of snubbing people of color. 

While accepting her honorary award, the What’s Love Got to Do With It actor delivered a speech, in which she acknowledged the 20+ years that have passed without a Black woman winning an Oscar for Best Actress. 

During her speech, Bassett quoted Fay Bainter, who awarded the 1939 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress to Hattie McDaniel, the first African American woman to win and be nominated for an Oscar.

“It is more than a plaque of gold. It opens the doors of this room. It moves back the walls and enables us to embrace the whole of America, an America that is almost alone in the world today. It recognizes and pays tribute to those who have given their best, regardless of creed, race, or color,” Bassett recited.

Continuing to paint the picture, Bassett described McDaniel making her way to the stage from the back of the establishment and walking past her Gone With the Wind castmates. “[McDaniel] historically tore down a barrier, making it possible for Black actresses to be seen and recognized at the highest levels in our industry for their contribution to film,” Bassett said.

“It would be another 50 years before another Black woman would win an Oscar. That extraordinary woman being my dear sister friend Whoopi [Goldberg], and still more than a decade before the next historical milestone with Halle’s [Berry] win as Best Actress, which for more than two decades remains the only,” she shared.

Bassett also acknowledged Jennifer Hudson, Mo’Nique, Octavia Spencer, Lupita Nyong’o, Viola Davis, Regina King, and Ariana DeBose, all of whom have won Oscars for Best Supporting Actress.

“I call their names to acknowledge every one of them this evening for being beacons of possibility, and hope for little Black and Brown girls who aspire to one day pursue the dream of becoming an actor,” the Black Panther actor said. 

Bassett concluded her speech with “Maya Angelo said very wisely, ‘People will forget, they will forget what you said, people will forget, they forget what you did, but people will never forget the way you made them feel. To all who have been on this journey with me and have supported the films in which I have had the privilege to play, it is my profound honor to have been able to make you see and feel through my work. Thank you for sharing this moment with me, and still I say, the best is yet to come.”

Bassett was honored alongside Mel Brooks and Carol Littleton.

Over the year, the lack of diversity in Hollywood has caused an uprising, leading to the creation of the #OscarsSoWhite campaign in 2015. Since then, the Academy has made efforts to include those of Asian descent and people of color in their organization, but still continuously come up short. Last year saw Black-led hits like The Woman King, Till and Nope shut out from nominations, while Andrea Riseborough schmoozed her way into the Best Actress category with a “grassroots” effort for her indie movie.

Bassett’s recent win doesn’t even begin to compensate for the Academy’s glaring oversights, though she’s well-deserving of the honorary award and her reflective words have touched many, including Kerry Washington and Hudson, who have since praised her speech.

One can only hope that the speech got through the thick heads of the Academy’s leadership and voters.