At the Golden Globe Awards last night, Oprah Winfrey stole the show, providing a rousing speech as recipient of the Cecil B DeMille award, a recognition that honors outstanding contributions to entertainment.
Prior recipients include Lucille Ball, Morgan Freeman and Walt Disney. Last year, Meryl Streep won the award. Winfrey is the first black women to receive the award since it was first instituted and provided to DeMille in 1952.
Wearing Atelier Versace, Winfrey referenced Recy Taylor, who in 1944 in Alabama was raped by six white men while on her way home from church. She was left blindfolded on the side of the road. The six men were brought to trial twice but two different grand juries chose not to indict the men.
Taylor passed away at age 97 on December 28, 2017 in Alabama. Before she passed, the Alabama House of Representatives in 2011 apologized to Taylor on behalf of the state of Alabama “for its failure to prosecute her attackers.”
Winfrey finished by stating, “I want all the girls watching here now to know that a new day is on the horizon and when that new day finally dawns, it will be because of a lot of magnificent women, many of whom are right here in this room tonight, and some pretty phenomenal men, fighting hard to make sure that they become the leaders who take us to the time when nobody ever has to say ‘me too’ again.”
Check out the speech below, along with a cute moment between Winfrey and her bestie, Gayle Kimg, below.
“I want all of the girls watching here now to know, that a new day is on the horizon.” @Oprah accepts the 2018 Cecil B. de Mille award. #GoldenGlobes pic.twitter.com/hbquC1GBjm
— Golden Globe Awards (@goldenglobes) January 8, 2018
Oprah and Gayle