Academy Awards' Top 10 Best Black Actor/Actress Winners

Since the Academy Awards coincide with Black History Month, I thought it would be appropriate to highlight the top 10 black actors who have won Oscars for Best Actor/Actress in a Leading Role. So Hollywood -- which harbors, aids and abets, politically-correct, identity-politics-spouting, hand-out giving, limousine liberals -- can finally shut up about the so-called "racism" and all the other fake "isms" they claim exist and need to be addressed. Here's the list of black Academy Award Winners for Best Actor and Best Actress in a Leading Role, in chronological order.

1. 1963: Sidney Poitier wins for his role as Homer Smith in Lilies of the Field, becoming the first African-American actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor.

1964-2000: Lots of white winners.

2. 2001: Denzel Washington wins for his role as civil rights luminary and martyr Malcolm X in Spike Lee's Malcolm X, wins for his role as Rubin Carter, the real life legendary boxer, convicted of a crime he didn't commit, who overcomes the racist criminal justice system, police corruption and brutality, and proves his innocence through his persuasive and passionate autobiography in Hurricane, for his role as the corrupt, criminal, violent, lecherous cop, Alonzo Harris, in Training Day.

3. 2001: Halle Berry wins for her role as Leticia Musgrove in Monster's Ball, becoming the first (and only) African-American actress to win Best Actress.

2002-2003: Some more white people.

4. 2004: Jamie Foxx wins for his role as Ray Charles in Ray.

2005: More white people.

5. 2006: Forest Whitaker wins for his role as Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland.

2007: Again, more white people.

6. Oops. There is no 6.

Only 5 so far.

But I'm sure that will change on Sunday.

Oops. No black Best Actor/Actress Nominees this year.

But if history is any indication, we'll only have to wait 43 years.

So check back in 2051, for the top 10 (and only 10) list of black Best Actor/ Actress Academy Awards winners!

This post first appeared on Take Part.

Comments

[Phaedrusnyc]

02:00 PM on 02/26/2008

Okay, one- the issue is not with the Academy Awards- there were "lots of white [winners]" in between Sidney and Denzel (funny you don't mention Hattie and Whoopi, but whatever)? Probably because there weren't a whole lot of good roles for black people in that time- who SHOULD have won? Sammy Davis Jr? Bill Cosby? Richard Pryor? Great entertainers, sure, but not great actors. So the issue isn't the Academy, it's Hollywood. Except the issue isn't Hollywood- it's the movie-going public, who only recently have become open to supporting well-made films with black actors.

And two- the appropriate response to past racism is to be vigilant in the future. However, it would be absurdly unrealistic (not to mention unfair) to bitch every single year that a black actor is not nominated- I hate to remind you, but black people are still a minority population. You can't realistically expect (fiscally or morally) black actors to have an equal number of Hollywood roles as white actors.

[QueenCeleste]

06:50 PM on 02/26/2008

Well said, Phaedrusnyc!

And I should add, there were years when black actors or actresses won when other actors in the category were clearly better. Thus the Academy is clearly rooting for black actors.

[QueenCeleste]

07:00 PM on 02/25/2008

What about Asian and Hispanic American actors?

And your "Some more white people" and "More white people" sounds a tad racist, by the way.

[sfbayani]

04:56 PM on 02/25/2008

Points taken.
How about the rest of us, non-white, non-black?
I mean, the in-between colors - brown, yellow, red??? (By the way, Vietnamese actor Haing Ngor won, yea ... and who else???)
But there's a problem there.
When the rest of us, cannot even have the chance to play these so-called important film parts (Oscar caliber, I mean), then how do you expect non-white, non-black actors win the gold?

[MoralMirror]

02:40 PM on 02/25/2008

Good job. Who can deny this problem after seeing it in black and white (no pun intended)? This is why "minorities" develop a separate system for virtually everything. If black actors, and other artists are going to sit around and wait to be recognied by people who refuse to acknowledge their existance...they'd die waiting. This is where the two Americas theory comes into play.

[Siansmom]

01:01 PM on 02/25/2008

Sidney Poitier should have never been #1 - The first person of color to win an Oscar was Hattie McDaniel (GWTW, 1939). And considering the climate in which she earned her award, I think she deserves the #1 spot.

[verlaine]

12:09 AM on 02/25/2008

Jon Stewart has to go!!! He's the lamest. most pathetic host the Oscars have ever had! The Motion Picture Academy should never let Stewart host again. He should be banned from California for life and the Daily Show should be cancelled

[MrsGreebers]

09:14 AM on 02/25/2008

I'm sure they will cancel the show if the ratings are not there.

[bridges]

07:17 PM on 02/24/2008

hilarious!

but sad--and surprising.

thanks for point out the pattern.

[rix]

06:36 PM on 02/24/2008

Taking 3 Best Actor awards out of the past 7 is pretty good, doncha think?

[dana94591]

06:01 PM on 02/24/2008

So, what is the point? This is old news. We know the history of the Oscar and its acknowledgement of minority/people of color as actors. As the world broadens its perspective to include people of color as professionals, the academy is finally seeing many ethnic actors/actresses as worthy of the statute. But this article is not anything new. There are more interesting and pressing issues in entertainment right now: dearth of meaty roles for actresses, period; the rehashing remakes because the industry cannot find creative material to put on the screen that doesn't involve killing, maiming, brutalizing or sexualizing and sensationalizing some sophomoric material by some idiot.