Actor and singer Jennifer Hudson has won two awards at the 53rd NAACP Image Awards, held on Saturday. The Oscar-winning actor bagged awards for Entertainer of the Year and outstanding actress in a motion picture for her performance as Aretha Franklin in the film Respect.
This brings Hudson’s total tally of NAACP awards, to eight. However, Jazmine Sullivan won the most awards, this year, with wins in three categories.
The National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People is a US-based organisation that celebrates and honours the contribution of Black artists across literature, music, films and television.
Winners from the 80 plus categories were announced virtually, over five days, apart from the final event on Saturday. Among the winners acknowledged during the pre-telecast, include, Will Smith in the outstanding actor category for King Richard, Issa Rae for her show Insecure that won the outstanding comedy series award, Sterling K Brown and Angela Bassett in the drama actor and actress categories fro their roles in This is Us and 9-1-1, respectively. It may be noted that Rae bagged the acting award for her HBO series, in the last edition.
Netflix’s The Harder They Fall nabbed the award for outstanding motion picture. The film also earned Regina King an award in the outstanding supporting actress in a motion picture.
Actor Samuel L Jackson was honoured with the Chairman Award, and said in his acceptance speech, “We can put our legs, our bodies, and our voices to work to make sure people do get out and vote … no matter what they do to keep us from doing it,” Jackson said. “And I hope you all will do that. And maybe one day, someone will end up with one of these [awards] because you used your legs, your voice and your body.”
Hosted for the ninth consecutive year by Anthony Anderson from a Los Angeles studio, the event also focused on the importance of voting rights of coloured people in America. Anderson also won the outstanding actor in a comedy series for Black-ish, which he won for the eighth consecutive year.
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“This is the one place where they can’t stop Black people from voting,” Anderson said during his opening speech.
NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson presented the President’s Award to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, for the couple’s public service.
The pair’s nonprofit organization Archewell has partnered with NAACP to create the Oswell Digital Civil Rights Award, to be given annually to “leaders creating transformational change at the intersection of social justice and technology.” Dr Sophia Noble, co-founder of the UCLA Center for Critical Internet Inquiry, is the inaugural recipient of the award.