Mahershala Ali & Viola Davis Make History at 89th Annual Academy Awards

As Viola Davis & Mahershala Ali‘s films, ‘Fences’ and ‘Moonlight’ respectively, were two of the year’s most Academy Award-nominated movies, fans of both took a deep sigh of relief when the works were honored by the voting committee for their groundbreaking performances.

The wins not only come for triumphs for people of color, many of whom have lashed out at the academy for reportedly limiting the types of roles African Americans are generally nominated for, but also for Davis & Ali who see their names penciled in history books as a result.

Curious to know why or how?  The answer inside:

With his win of ‘Best Supporting Actor’ Ali became the first Muslim to ever win an Academy Award.  See his acceptance speech below:

Elsewhere, Davis is seeing her name added to record books as well.  With her ‘Best Supporting Actress’ win for her role in ‘Fences’ she joins Whoopi Goldberg as the only African American actresses to have won an Academy Award, Tony Award, and Emmy Award.  Unlike Goldberg, Davis is the first African American actress to win all three awards for acting (‘The View’ hostess won her Tony Award for production).

Unlike Davis, Goldberg also has a Grammy to her credit.