September 21, 2015

Viola Davis Becomes the First African-American to Win Emmy for Best Actress in Drama


Last night, Viola Davis made history by becoming the first African American to win the award for best actress in a drama series. In her acceptance speech, the How to Get Away with Murder actress delivered a stirring message on diversity and the lack of opportunity women of color face in Hollywood.

“In my dreams, I see a line,” an emotional Davis said. “And over that line, I see green fields and lovely flowers and beautiful white women with their arms stretched out to me over that line, but I can’t seem to get there no how, I can seem to get over that line.”

“That was Harriet Tubman in the 1800s. Let me tell you something—the only thing that separates women of color from anyone else is opportunity. You can not win an Emmy for roles that simply are not there.”

Both her historic win and speech were met with congratulations on social media:

Bravo!

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THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

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If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

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