This year’s Golden Globes was special. Not just because Oprah Winfrey received the Cecil B. Demille Lifetime Achievement Award, making her the first Black woman to do so. It’s an award she rightly earned. Just look at what she’s done: Winfrey was known as the queen of the daytime talk show with The Oprah Winfrey Show, which ran for 25 seasons from 1986 to 2011, while also acting in lead roles in critically acclaimed movies (many of which she also produced [Boss move!]).
In 1985, she costarred in Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple, a role for which she received a Golden Globe nomination. In 1998, she produced and starred in the movie adaptation of Toni Morrison’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Beloved, and later in Lee Daniels’ The Butler and Ava DuVernay’s Selma. She is also the Chairman and CEO of the cable network, OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network, and founder of O, The Oprah Magazine.
But the award isn’t what made the night special, it was what Oprah said in her acceptance speech that made people proud, while they shed a tear and had their insides jump for joy.
“What I know for sure is that speaking your truth is the most powerful tool we all have,” exclaimed Oprah. “I’m especially proud and inspired by all the woman who felt strong enough and empowered enough to speak up and share their personal stories.”
Attendees at Sunday’s Golden Globes protested sexual harassment and sexual assault in