If there was a single takeaway from the night, it is that black women are being supported on television right now in a way that they aren’t in cinema. A record three black women won Emmys last night: Viola Davis, for lead dramatic actress in “How To Get Away With Murder”; Uzo Aduba, for supporting dramatic actress in “Orange Is The New Black” and Regina King, for supporting actress in the miniseries “American Crime.” Davis and King are industry veterans—Davis has been twice nominated for an Oscar, and King has worked as a performer since she was a teenager. Despite both being in the industry for decades, this is the first major screen award for both women (Davis is a two-time Tony Award winner). Furthermore, Davis is the first black woman to win lead actress in a drama, ever; her speech was one of the most emotional moments of the night. As she observed, what made this win possible for her was an industry that created roles for her—such as Shonda Rhimes and Peter Nowalk, the executive producer and showrunner behind “How To Get Away With Murder.”
What is astonishing—near-revolutionary, in fact, given the painful #OscarsSoWhite film awards we saw earlier this year—is that Davis was not the only black woman nominated in her category, and neither was King.