Halle Berry won the Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of a struggling widow who falls in love with her husband’s death row executioner in Monster’s Ball. As an emotional Berry clutched her Oscar, she tearfully pointed out “This moment is so much bigger than me. This moment is for Dorothy Dandridge, Lena Horne, Diahann Carroll. It’s for the women that stand beside me, Jada Pinkett, Angela Bassett, Vivica Fox. And it’s for every nameless, faceless woman of color that now has a chance because this door tonight has been opened. Thank you. I’m so honored. I’m so honored. And I thank the Academy for choosing me to be the vessel for which His blessing might flow.” Before Berry, the only African American actress to win an Academy Award was Hattie McDaniel, who earned the statuette for her supporting role in 1939’s Gone With the Wind. At the Oscar ceremony, McDaniel and her guest had to sit at a segregated table. The same night Berry won her historic Oscar, Denzel Washington became only the second Black man to win in the Best Actor category, for his role as a corrupt Los Angeles police officer in Training Day. It was the first time at the Academy Awards that Black performers took home both of the year’s top acting awards. Coming from a Cleveland home scarred by domestic violence, Berry sought to empower women through her work on and off screen.
