All African-American Oscar winners in history

In 2024, Da'Vine Joy Randolph won her first Academy Award for her outstanding performance as Mary Lamb in 'The Holdovers'. She received the award with an emotional speech: "I always wanted to be different. Now I realize I just need to be myself."

Since the creation of the Academy Awards in 1929, more than 300 Oscars have been awarded to outstanding actors and actresses. Among these awards, only a few have actually gone to African-American or Black actors. Do you know how many?

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Over the course of 96 years, 23 Oscars have been awarded to African-American or Black actors and actresses, with some of them winning twice. It's a concerning balance that the Academy has been working to change for some time now. In fact, 15 of the 23 statuettes for Black actors were awarded in the past 20 years.

At the controversial Oscar ceremony of 2022, Will Smith took home a statuette for his leading role in 'King Richard.' He is one of the few African-American actors in the history of the Oscars to have won this prize.

Besides Will Smith, Aunjanue L. Ellis was nominated for her role in 'King Richard.' Denzel Washington got a nomination for 'The Tragedy of Macbeth' and Ariana DeBose (photo) won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 'West Side Story.' This means that 2022 was a pretty good year for African-American actors in the Academy.

He won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 2021 for his role in 'Judas and the Black Messiah.' Daniel Kaluuya played Fred Hampton, the leader of the Black Panther movement who was killed in an FBI raid in 1969. When accepting his Oscar, the actor said that even today, there was still "work to do" for racial equality and justice.

Regina King had won three Emmys (for 'American Crime Story' and 'Seven Seconds') when she crowned that hat-trick with her first Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. 'If Beale Street Could Talk' was directed by Barry Jenkins. The streak of Regina King continued, by the way, because in 2020 she won another Emmy for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performance in 'Watchmen'.

Mahershala Ali was in 2017 the first Muslim actor to ever win an Oscar. He did so after also triumphing on television in 'The 4400' and 'True Detective'. On the big screen, he earned two Oscars for Best Supporting Actor: first in 'Moonlight' in 2017 and then in Green Book in 2019. 'Moonlight', by the way, was also directed by Barry Jenkins, just like the movie that got Regina King her Oscar. 'Green Book', on the other hand, was directed by Peter Farrelly.

For years, Viola Davis has been calling for equal opportunities in the film industry. Obviously, when she won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, in a film directed by Denzel Washington, she took advantage of the acceptance speech to launch a monologue vindicating the talent of her African American colleagues.

Lupita Nyong'o's performance in Steve McQueen's film '12 Years a Slave' was heart-breaking. Her Oscar was beyond reproach. Despite not having been nominated since, the actress has proved to be a true chameleon. She can dress up as a heroine in 'Black Panther', hunt zombies in 'Little Monsters' and provoke terrifying insomnia in the uncomfortable thriller 'Us'.

She is one of Hollywood's best and most respected actresses. Octavia Spencer's award came for one of the most memorable films of the past decade: 'The Help', directed by Tate Taylor. Since then, she has earned two more nominations, for 'Hidden Figures' (2017) and 'The Shape of Water' (2018), both times as Supporting Actress.

Mo'Nique came from a comedy background and she blew away the Academy with her spectacular and painful performance in Lee Daniels' 'Precious.' She has not been nominated since.

Jennifer Hudson went from 'American Idol' to winning an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. Strangely enough, she didn't even make the top five in the talent show. To director Bill Condon she was the perfect Effie White, however, and everything worked out wonderfully with the movie and the actress.

Forest Whitaker had been a Hollywood icon for years, but with his memorable role in the TV series 'The Shield', his fame rose to an all-time high. The actor's Oscar for 'The Last King of Scotland' was an example of the incredible quality he delivered. Just look at his rivals for the Best Actor Oscar: Leonardo DiCaprio, Ryan Gosling, Will Smith and Peter O'Toole.

Jamie Foxx was a comedian who became a great actor. His appearance at the Oscars in 2005 was a dazzling one. An Oscar for 'Ray', but also a nomination for Best Supporting Actor in 'Collateral'. The double was closer than one might imagine, but in the end only the biopic won him a statuette. He has not been nominated again.

Another Hollywood legend who deserved an Oscar that never seemed to come, was Morgan Freeman. Finally, his role came in Clint Eastwood movie 'Million Dollar Baby'. Perhaps, Freeman should have gotten it a decade earlier for 'The Shawshank Redemption' but in the end justice was done. The actor has four other nominations to his name. The last was in 2010 for 'Invictus'.

He's an icon for the African-American acting community, and in 2002 he became the first Black actor to win a second Oscar. In that year, he won the award for Best Lead Actor in 'Training Day', directed by Antoine Fuqua. Twelve years earlier, he had won the award for 'Glory', directed by Edward Zwick. In addition to these prizes, he's had six more nominations, most recently in 2018 for the legal drama 'Roman J. Israel, Esq.' It probably won't be his last.

Believe it or not, until 2002, no African-American woman had ever won the Oscar for Best Lead Actress. It took more than 70 years for the Academy to reach this milestone. Halle Berry's speech, emotional and with an overwhelming historical weight, is one of the most remembered in Oscar history.

The case of Cuba Gooding Jr. is yet another example that some Oscars come with a curse. The actor won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in the movie 'Jerry Maguire' and seemed to be at the top of the world. However, his tempestuous personal life and a dubious choice of his next titles took him away from the Hollywood A-List he had reached on his own merits.

Whoopi Goldberg gave Hollywood and the world one of the best movie characters in history. Oda Mae Brown matched the balance between comedy and drama that was 'Ghost'. The actress had already received another nomination for 'The Color Purple' in 1986. After 'Ghost,' she was not nominated again, but she made hits like 'Sister Act' and that was legendary too.

In 1983, it was the third time that an African-American actor won the Oscar. At the 55th Academy Awards, Louis Gossett Jr got it for 'An Officer and a Gentleman.' The romance with Richard Gere and Debra Winger was one of the most famous movies competing that year. Gossett Jr was not nominated again, but his name continues to be Oscar history.

At the height of the social battle for civil rights in the United States, Sidney Poitier became a symbol of that struggle as the first Black (Bahamian-American) actor  to win the Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role.

Hattie McDaniel played Mammy in 'Gone with the Wind' and took home a surprising award for Best Supporting Actress. She couldn't pick it up herself, because racial segregation laws prevented her from attending the gala. While the role of Mammy itself is now considered somewhat old-fashioned and stereotypical, McDaniel gave a masterful performance and was ahead of her time as an actress.