Yes, the Oscars Award have been snubbing us for years.. Yes. But did you know that to date, 44 African Americans have been nominated for (acting) Academy Awards – 12 of which have won the award and 32 more have been nominated too? Check out the list of the privileged few below:
The lucky 12 African American Actors who have won Academy Awards (Oscars)
- 1939 Hattie McDaniel for Gone With the Wind
Best Supporting Actress - 1963 Sidney Poitier for Lilies of the Field
Best Actor - 1982 Louis Gossett, Jr. for An Officer and a Gentlemen
Best Supporting Actor - 1989 Denzel Washington for Glory
Best Supporting Actor - 1990 Whoopi Goldberg for Ghost
Best Supporting Actress - 1996 Cuba Gooding, Jr. for Jerry Maguire
Best Supporting Actor - 2001 Denzel Washington for Training Day
Best Actor - 2001 Halle Berry for Monster’s Ball
Best Actress - 2004 Jamie Foxx for Ray
Best Actor - 2004 Morgan Freeman for Million Dollar Baby
Best Supporting Actor - 2006 Forest Whitaker for The Last King of Scotland
Best Actor - 2006 Jennifer Hudson for Dreamgirls
Best Supporting Actress - 2009 Mo’Nique for Precious
Best Supporting Actress
Besides these 12 African Americans who have won Academy Awards (some of whom have been nominated more than once), the following 32 African Americans have also been nominated as actors.
- 1948 Ethel Waters for Pinky
- 1954 Dorothy Dandridge for Carmen Jones
- 1959 Juanita Moore for Imitation of Life
- 1967 Beah Richards for Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner
- 1969 Rupert Crosse for The Reivers
- 1970 James Earl Jones for The Great White Hope
- 1972 Paul Winfield for Sounder
- 1972 Cicely Tyson for Sounder
- 1972 Diana Ross for Lady Sings the Blues
- 1974 Diahann Carroll for Claudine
- 1981 Howard Rollins for Ragtime
- 1983 Alfre Woodard for Cross Creek
- 1984 Adolph Caesar for A Soldier’s Story
- 1985 Oprah Winfrey for The Color Purple
- 1985 Margaret Avery for The Color Purple
- 1986 Dexter Gordon for Round Midnight
- 1992 Jaye Davidson for The Crying Game
- 1993 Laurence Fishburne for What’s Love Got to Do With It
- 1993 Angela Bassett for What’s Love Got to Do With It
- 1994 Samuel L. Jackson for Pulp Fiction
- 1996 Marianne Jean-Baptiste for Secrets & Lies
- 1999 Michael Clarke for The Green Mile
- 2001 Will Smith for Ali (and 2006 for The Pursuit of Happiness)
- 2002 Queen Latifah for Chicago
- 2003 Djimon Hounsou for In America (and 2006 for Blood Diamond)
- 2004 Don Cheadle for Hotel Rwanda
- 2004 Sophie Okonedo for Hotel Rwanda
- 2005 Terrence Howard for Hustle & Flow
- 2006 Eddie Murphy for Dreamgirls
- 2007 Ruby Dee for American Gangster
- 2008 Viola Davis for Doubt
- 2008 Taraji Henson for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button