Halle Berry made Oscar history by winning the Best Actress nomination.

In Marc Forster’s 2001 drama Monster’s Ball, Halle Berry plays Letitia Musgrove, a woman at the end of her rope. Her husband was convicted of murder and executed by the state of Georgia at the beginning of the film. Letitia is trying to put her life back together when her son Tyrell (Coronji Calhoun) is hit by a car and killed. Letitia can only find solace in the arms of a gruff prison warden named Hank (Billy Bob Thornton), whose own son (Heath Ledger) recently committed suicide. What Letitia does not know, however, is that Hank oversaw her husband’s execution. All this is very difficult, but tactfully and with maximum sensitivity. Monster Ball is a great movie.

Berry won the Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Leticia at the 2002 Academy Awards, beating out Judi Dench, Nicole Kidman, Sissy Spacek and Renee Zellweger. Her victory was deserved.

She was only the seventh black woman to be nominated for Best Actress at the Oscars. Previous nominees include Dorothy Dandridge (for Carmen Jones in 1954), Diana Ross (for Lady Sings the Blues in 1972), Cecily Tyson (for Sounder, also in 1972), Diana Carroll (for Claudine » in 1974), Whoopi Goldberg (for The Color Purple in 1985) and Angela Bassett (for “What’s Love Got to Do With It?” in 1993). Berry was also the first to actually win in this category. It was a shining moment for black women everywhere, and “finally!” moment for the Academy.

In the same year, another notable record was broken. Because Denzel Washington became the best actor his controversial role in Antoine Fuqua’s Training Day, In 2002, the Academy Awards marked the first time that black actors had won two major acting awards at the same time.

However, since Berry’s win, no other black woman has won the Oscar for Best Actress. Since 2002, only six additional black women have even been nominated (one of them twice), but none of them took home a statuette. Berry still holds the record.

Since 2002, the following six black women have been considered for Best Actress. Gabourey Sidibe was nominated in 2009 for his performance in Lee Daniels’ Precious. Viola Davis has been nominated twice: in 2011 for The Help and in 2020 for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. In 2012, eight-year-old Quvenzhane Wallis was nominated for Beasts of the Southern Wild, and she holds the record as the youngest person ever to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress. Ruth Negga was nominated in 2016 for her role in Loving and Cynthia Eriva was nominated in 2019 for her role as Harriet Tubman in Harriet.

Most recently, Andra Day was nominated for her portrayal of Billie Holiday in Daniels’ United States vs. Billie Holiday. By the way, in 1972 Diana Ross was also nominated for the role of Billie Holiday.

There have been more nominations for black women in the Academy’s Best Supporting Actress category, with a total of 29 since 1939. Hattie McDaniel famously won Best Supporting Actress for her role in Gone With the Wind, and many Hollywood history buffs know that she was only allowed into the building as a special favor; The Ambassador Hotel, where the Oscars were held, was a separate venue. McDaniel was unable to join her white co-stars at the party because it was also held in a segregated location.

Seven black women have been nominated for Best Supporting Actress since McDaniel, but none won until Goldberg in 1990 for her role in Ghost. It took “only” 50 years.

However, since 2004, 19 films have been nominated for roles by black women, and eight of them have won. Most recently, Da’Vine Joy Randolph won an Oscar for her portrayal of Mary in 2023’s The Survivor. Danielle Brooks was nominated the same year for her role as Sophia in The Color Purple. By the way, Oprah Winfrey was nominated for the same role in the 1985 film version of The Color Purple.