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Viola Davis Makes History At The 2015 Emmys

Viola Davis, if you even knew her name before the hit series How To Get Away With Murder, she probably seemed like the woman behind the scenes, with rare lead roles that made her expand her horizon as an actress of bring her to the mainstream like the hit series did. After graduating from the Juilliard…

Viola Davis, if you even knew her name before the hit series How To Get Away With Murder, she probably seemed like the woman behind the scenes, with rare lead roles that made her expand her horizon as an actress of bring her to the mainstream like the hit series did.

After graduating from the Juilliard School, she began her career on the stage, and in 1999, she won an Obie Award for her performance as Ruby McCollum in Everybody’s Ruby.

It’s been a long time coming and she certainly deserved this award. Accepting her prize, the 50-year-old evoked the spirit of African-American freedom fighter Harriet Tubman.

IMAGE DISTRIBUTED FOR THE TELEVISION ACADEMY - Viola Davis accepts the award for outstanding lead actress in a drama series for “How to Get Away With Murder” at the 67th Primetime Emmy Awards on Sunday, Sept. 20, 2015, at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. (Photo by Phil McCarten/Invision for the Television Academy/AP Images)

IMAGE DISTRIBUTED FOR THE TELEVISION ACADEMY – Viola Davis accepts the award for outstanding lead actress in a drama series for “How to Get Away With Murder” at the 67th Primetime Emmy Awards on Sunday, Sept. 20, 2015, at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. (Photo by Phil McCarten/Invision for the Television Academy/AP Images)

 

In my mind, I see a line. And over that line, I see green fields and lovely flowers and beautiful, white women with their arms stretched out to me over that line, but I can’t seem to get there no how. I can’t seem to get over that line

The only thing that separates women of colour from anyone else is opportunity.

This moved me as Viola Davis became the first black woman to win the prestigious Emmy Awards for her role as the lead actress in the drama series How To Get Away With Murder.

She adds ” You cannot win an Emmy for roles that are simply not there. So here’s to all the writers, the awesome people — people who have redefined what it means to be beautiful, to be sexy, to be a leading woman, to be black.”

Watch acceptance speech below;

Two other black women took home Emmys — Regina King for American Crime, and Uzo Aduba’s second consecutive statuette for series Orange Is the New Black

Thank you Viola, for encouraging women world wide. Especially women of colour. Social media has been lit, with women all over the world congratulating her and hopefully, being truly inspired by her hard work.

Video Credit: Guardian

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