Inspiring Speeches from Black Women -- Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Dream Continues
Among many inspirational quotes from Martin Luther King, Jr., he said it best when he said, "our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." To that note, we are highlighting some of the most powerful acceptance speeches from some of our favorite women.
1. Yara Shahidi - Black Girls Rock! 2017 Young, Black and Gifted Award
"Our community of smart, powerful, insightful, fierce Black girls is a community that exists without definition."
FULL SPEECH:
For many people, the definition [of their identity] is based on who we are not, it’s based on who we don’t want to be, who we don’t want to be perceived like. White taught me what black was not. Male taught me what female was not. Straight taught me what gay was not. Sad taught me what happy was not. Law taught me what equality and equity were not.
But our charge is not to live within this negative space of who we are not to be. Who are we not to be, after all?
Our community has sparked powerful, insightful and fierce black girls, and this community exists without definition and therefore without restriction.
Black Girls Rock! inspires us to lead in the midst of hard times, speak up for one another who are actively being silenced, and push forward. The way that our ancestors have so clearly planned for us to do. We thrive because we are, we are because we chose to be.
-Yara Shahidi
2. Viola Davis - Emmys 2015 Outstanding Lead Actress
“The only thing that separates women of color from anyone else is opportunity."
FULL SPEECH:
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." That was Harriet Tubman in the 1800s. And let me tell you something. The only thing that separates women of color from anyone else is opportunity. You cannot win an Emmy for roles that are simply not there. So here's to all the writers, the awesome people that are Ben Sherwood, Paul Lee, Peter Nowalk, Shonda Rhimes, people who have redifined what it means to be beautiful, to be sexy, to be a leading woman, to be black. And to the Taraji P. Hensons, the Kerry Washingtons, the Halle Berrys, the Nicole Beharies, the Meagan Goods. To Gabrielle Union. Thank you for taking us over that line. Thank you to the Television Academy. Thank you.
-Viola Davis
3. Rihanna - Harvard 2017 Humanitarian of the Year
"All you need to do is help one person, expecting nothing in return."
FULL SPEECH:
When I was five or six years old, I remember watching TV and I would see these commercials and I was watching other children suffer in other parts of the world and you know the commercials were [like], 'you can give 25 cents, save a child's life,' you know?
And I would think to myself like, I wonder how many 25 cents I could save up to save all the kids in Africa. And I would say to myself you know, 'when I grow up, when I can get rich, I'mma save kids all over the world.' I just didn't know I would be in the position to do that by the time I was a teenager.
At 17 I started my career here in America, and by the age of 18, I started my first charity organization," she continued. "I went on to team up with other organizations in the following years and met, helped, and even lost some of the most beautiful souls, from six-year-old Jasmina Anema who passed away in 2010 from leukemia, her story inspired thousands to volunteer as donors through DKMS. Fast forward to 2012 and then my grandmother, the late Clara Brathwaite, she lost her battle with cancer, which is the very reason and the driving force behind the Clara Lionel Foundation. We're all human. And we all just want a chance: a chance at life, a chance in education, a chance at a future, really. And at CLF, our mission is to impact as many lives as possible, but it starts with just one. Just one.
As I stare out into this beautiful room, I see optimism, I see hope, I see the future. I know that each and every one of you has the opportunity to help someone else. All you need to do is help one person, expecting nothing in return. To me, that is a humanitarian.
-Rihanna
4. Amandla Stenberg - Black Girls Rock! 2016 Young, Black and Gifted Award
“My blackness does not inhibit me from being beautiful and intelligent. In fact, it is the reason why I am beautiful and intelligent.”
5. Taraji P. Henson - SAG Awards 2017 Best Ensemble
"This story is about what happens when we put our differences aside, and we come together as a human race. We win. Love wins every time... They are hidden figures no more!"
6. Serena Williams - Sports Illustrated 2015 Sportsperson of the Year
"I've had people look past me because the color of my skin, I've had people overlook me because I was a woman, I've had critics say I [would] never win another Grand Slam when I was only at no. 7 — and here I stand today with 21 Grand Slam titles, and I'm still going."
7. Halle Berry - Oscars 2002 Best Leading Actress Award
"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."
FULL TRANSCRIPT:
Oh my God. Oh my God. I'm sorry. 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.
I want to thank my manager, Vincent Cirrincione. He's been with me for twelve long years and you fought every fight, and you loved me when I've been up but more importantly you've loved me when I've been down. You have been a manager, a friend and the only father I've ever known. Really. And I love you very much. I want to thank my mom who has given me the strength to fight every single day to be who I want to be and to give me the courage to dream, that this dream might be happening and possible for me. I love you, Mom, so much. Thank you, my husband, who is just a joy of my life. And India, thank you for giving me peace because only with the peace that you've brought me have I been allowed to go to places that I never even knew I could go. Thank you. I love you and India with all my heart.
I want to thank Lions Gate. Thank you, Mike Paseornek, Tom Ortenberg, for making sure everybody knew about this little tiny movie. Thank you for believing in me. Our director Marc Forster, you're a genius. You're a genius. This moviemaking experience was magical for me because of you. You believed in me, you trusted me and you gently guided me to very scary places. I thank you. I want to thank Ivana Chubbuck, I could have never figured out who the heck this lady was without you. I love you. Thank you. I want to thank Lee Daniels, our producer. Thank you for giving me this chance, for believing that I could do it. And now tonight I have this. Thank you.
I want to thank my agents. CAA, Josh Lieberman especially. I have to thank my agents. Kevin Huvane, thank you. Thank you for never kicking me out and sending me somewhere else. Thank you. Um... I, I, I, who else? I have so many people that I know I need to thank. My lawyers! Neil Meyer, thank you. Okay, wait a minute. I got to take... seventy-four years here! I got to take this time! I got to thank my lawyer Neil Meyer for making this deal. Doug Stone. I need to thank lastly and not leastly, I have to thank Spike Lee for putting me in my very first film and believing in me. Oprah Winfrey, for being the best role model any girl can have. Joel Silver, thank you. And thank you to Warren Beatty. Thank you so much for being my mentors and believing in me. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" -Halle Berry
8. Issa Rae - 2017 Black Girls Rock! Star Power Award
"For a long time, I defined myself by what I wasn't," she said. "My life changed when I focused on what I was, what I was good at, what I liked most about myself and what made me stand out. Once I learned to like me more than others did, then I didn't have to worry about being the funniest or the most popular or the prettiest. I was the best me and I only ever tried to be that."
9. Maxine Waters - Black Girls Rock! 2017 Social Humanitarian Award
"They would have me believe I'm too Black, too confrontational, I'm too tough and I'm too disrespectful of them. But now, I know I'm simply a strong Black woman."
FULL TRANSCRIPT:
Hello, I'm Maxine Waters. I'm a member of Congress representing the 43rd Congressional District in the greater Los Angeles area. Let me just say that I have been adopted by the millennials in this country. And I am honored. I am so pleased to see the involvement and the engagement of all of these millennials. And they have helped to teach me a new language. And we're talking about shade. We're talking about receipts. We're talking about serving a little tea. And of course, it's all about staying woke. I'd like to share with you ways that you can help resist this president. And Help lead him to impeachment. As you know no one expected that this man to be elected president. And now that he's president he certainly has defined himself. I think he's dangerous. I want everybody. To get on the Internet, let's use social media to help educate people and to help the elected officials know and understand that this country cannot tolerate Donald Trump. In addition to that, attend rallies, show up. Whether they're talking about the fact that he has not shown his tax returns, or whether not that They are rallying because of the way that he's trying to undo Obama care. Whether or not you're rallying because of the kind of people that he's put in his Cabinet. Like Jeff Session, who's a racist. Get involved. It's so very important that you now and understand That he does not deserve to be president, and the Congress of the United States must make the decision to impeach him. Really, there's enough evidence now, knowing that he obstructed justice, knowing that he colluded with the Russians to undermine our democracy. and really, if this Congress had the courage of its convictions, it would go ahead and initiate impeachment but we've got to make believers of them. We've got to push them, we've got to make sure they understand the majority citizens of this country would not him to remain in the Presidency. He doesn't deserve it and our country deserves better.
-Maxine Waters
10. Lupita Nyongo - Oscars 2014 Best Supporting Actress
"When I look down at this golden statue, may it remind me and every little child that no matter where you’re from your dreams are valid."
FULL TRANSCRIPT:
Yes! Thank you to the Academy for this incredible recognition. It doesn’t escape me for one moment that so much joy in my life is thanks to so much pain in someone else’s. And so I want to salute the spirit of Patsey for her guidance. And for Solomon, thank you for telling her story and your own. Steve McQueen, you charge everything you fashion with a breath of your own spirit. Thank you so much for putting me in this position. This has been the joy of my life. I’m certain that the dead are standing about you and watching and they are grateful and so am I.
Chiwetel, thank you for your fearlessness and how deeply you went into telling Solomon’s story. Michael Fassbender, thank you so much. You were my rock. Alfre and Sarah, it was a thrill to work with you. Joe Walker, the invisible performer in the editing room, thank you. Sean Bobbitt, Kalaadevi, Adruitha, Patty Norris, thank you, thank you, thank you, I could not be here without your work.
I want to thank my family for your training and the Yale School of Drama as well for your training. My friends, the Wilsons, this one’s for you. My brother, Junior, sitting by my side. Thank you so much. You are my best friend. And Ben, my other best friend, my chosen family.
When I look down at this golden statue, may it remind me and every little child that no matter where you’re from your dreams are valid.
Thank you.
- Lupita Nyongo
11. Oprah Winfrey - Golden Globes 2018 Cecil B. Demille Award
"For too long, women have not been heard or believed if they dared to speak their truth to the power of those men. But their time is up."
FULL TRANSCRIPT:
In 1964, I was a little girl sitting on the linoleum floor of my mother’s house in Milwaukee watching Anne Bancroft present the Oscar for Best Actor at the 36th Academy Awards. She opened the envelope and said five words that literally made history: “The winner is Sidney Poitier.” Up to the stage came the most elegant man I had ever seen. I remember his tie was white, and of course his skin was black—and I’d never seen a black man being celebrated like that. And I tried have tried many, many, many times to explain what a moment like that means to a little girl, a kid watching from the cheap seats as my mom came through the door bone tired from cleaning other people’s houses. But all I can do is quote and say that the explanation in Sidney’s performance in Lilies of the Field: “Amen, amen, amen, amen.”
In 1982, Sidney received the Cecil B. DeMille award right here at the Golden Globes and it is not lost on me that at this moment, there are some little girls watching as I become the first black woman to be given this same award. It is an honor—it is an honor and it is a privilege to share the evening with all of them and also with the incredible men and women who’ve inspired me, who’ve challenged me, who’ve sustained me and made my journey to this stage possible. Dennis Swanson who took a chance on me for A.M. Chicago. Quincy Jones who saw me on that show and said to Steven Spielberg, “Yes, she is Sophia in The Color Purple.” Gayle, who’s been the definition of what a friend is and Stedman, who’s been my rock. Just a few to name.
I’d like to thank the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, because we all know the press is under siege these days. But we also know that it is the insatiable dedication to uncovering the absolute truth that keeps us from turning a blind eye to corruption and to injustice. To—to tyrants and victims and secrets and lies. I want to say that I value the press more than ever before as we try to navigate these complicated times, which brings me to this: What I know for sure is that speaking your truth is the most powerful tool we all have. And I’m especially proud and inspired by all the women who have felt strong enough and empowered enough to speak up and share their personal stories. Each of us in this room are celebrated because of the stories that we tell, and this year, we became the story.
But it’s not just a story affecting the entertainment industry. It’s one that transcends any culture, geography, race, religion, politics, or workplace. So I want tonight to express gratitude to all the women who have endured years of abuse and assault because they, like my mother, had children to feed and bills to pay and dreams to pursue. They’re the women whose names we’ll never know. They are domestic workers and farm workers. They are working in factories and they work in restaurants and they’re in academia and engineering and medicine and science. They’re part of the world of tech and politics and business. They’re our athletes in the Olympics and they’re our soldiers in the military.
And there’s someone else, Recy Taylor, a name I know and I think you should know, too. In 1944, Recy Taylor was a young wife and a mother. She was just walking home from a church service she’d attended in Abbeville, Alabama, when she was abducted by six armed white men, raped, and left blindfolded by the side of the road coming home from church. They threatened to kill her if she ever told anyone, but her story was reported to the NAACP where a young worker by the name of Rosa Parks became the lead investigator on her case and together they sought justice. But justice wasn’t an option in the era of Jim Crow. The men who tried to destroy her were never persecuted. Recy Taylor died 10 days ago, just shy of her 98th birthday. She lived as we all have lived, too many years in a culture broken by brutally powerful men. For too long, women have not been heard or believed if they dared to speak their truth to the power of those men. But their time is up. Their time is up.
Their time is up. And I just hope—I just hope that Recy Taylor died knowing that her truth, like the truth of so many other women who were tormented in those years, and even now tormented, goes marching on. It was somewhere in Rosa Parks’s heart almost 11 years later, when she made the decision to stay seated on that bus in Montgomery, and it’s here with every woman who chooses to say, “Me too.” And every man—every man who chooses to listen.
In my career, what I’ve always tried my best to do, whether on television or through film, is to say something about how men and women really behave. To say how we experience shame, how we love and how we rage, how we fail, how we retreat, persevere, and how we overcome. And I’ve interviewed and portrayed people who’ve withstood some of the ugliest things life can throw at you, but the one quality all of them seem to share is an ability to maintain hope for a brighter morning, even during our darkest nights. So I want all the girls watching here and now to know that a new day is on the horizon! And when that new day finally dawns, it will be because of a lot of magnificent women, many of whom are right here in this room tonight, and some pretty phenomenal men, fighting hard to make sure that they become the leaders who take us to the time when nobody ever has to say “me too” again. Thank you.
-Oprah Winfrey
[Bonus] Not a woman but this speech was too powerful to not include
Jesse Williams - 2016 BET Humanitarian Award
"If you have no interest in equal rights for black people then do not make suggestions for those who do. Sit down."
Before we get into it, I just want to say I brought my parents out tonight. I just want to thank them for being here, for teaching me to focus on comprehension over career, and that they make sure I learn what the schools were afraid to teach us. And also to thank my amazing wife for changing my life.
Now, this award - this is not for me. This is for the real organizers all over the country - the activists, the civil rights attorneys, the struggling parents, the families, the teachers, the students that are realizing that a system built to divide and impoverish and destroy us cannot stand if we do.
It's kind of basic mathematics - the more we learn about who we are and how we got here, the more we will mobilize.
Now, this is also in particular for the black women in particular who have spent their lifetimes dedicated to nurturing everyone before themselves. We can and will do better for you.
Now, what we've been doing is looking at the data and we know that police somehow manage to deescalate, disarm, and not kill white people every day. So what's going to happen is we are going to have equal rights and justice in our own country or we will restructure their function and ours.
Now... I got more y'all - yesterday would have been young Tamir Rice's 14th birthday so I don't want to hear any more about how far we've come when paid public servants can pull a drive-by on 12-year-old playing alone in the park in broad daylight, killing him on television and then going home to make a sandwich. Tell Rekia Boyd how it's so much better than it is to live in 2012 than it is to live in 1612 or 1712. Tell that to Eric Garner. Tell that to Sandra Bland. Tell that to Dorian Hunt.
Now the thing is, though, all of us in here getting money - that alone isn't gonna stop this. Alright, now dedicating our lives, dedicating our lives to getting money just to give it right back for someone's brand on our body when we spent centuries praying with brands on our bodies, and now we pray to get paid for brands on our bodies.
There has been no war that we have not fought and died on the front lines of. There has been no job we haven't done. There is no tax they haven't leveed against us - and we've paid all of them. But freedom is somehow always conditional here. "You're free," they keep telling us. But she would have been alive if she hadn't acted so... free.
Now, freedom is always coming in the hereafter, but you know what, though, the hereafter is a hustle. We want it now.
And let's get a couple things straight, just a little side note - the burden of the brutalized is not to comfort the bystander. That's not our job, alright - stop with all that. If you have a critique for the resistance, for our resistance, then you better have an established record of critique of our oppression. If you have no interest, if you have no interest in equal rights for black people then do not make suggestions to those who do. Sit down.
We've been floating this country on credit for centuries, yo, and we're done watching and waiting while this invention called whiteness uses and abuses us, burying black people out of sight and out of mind while extracting our culture, our dollars, our entertainment like oil - black gold, ghettoizing and demeaning our creations then stealing them, gentrifying our genius, and then trying us on like costumes before discarding our bodies like rinds of strange fruit. The thing is though... the thing is that just because we're magic doesn't mean we're not real.
Thank you.
-Jesse Williams