Ruth E. Carter is the First Black Woman to Win Two Oscars

Ruth E. Carter just won the Best Costume Design Oscar for her work in Marvel’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. This is the second Oscar she won.

Legendary costume designer Ruth E. Carter has just made history. Moments ago, Carter won the Best Costume Design Oscar for her work in Marvel’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. It is the second time Carter has won an Oscar for her work in the Black Panther series. It also means that she is the only Black woman to win two Oscar awards.

During her speech, Carter took time to acknowledge the achievement while also honoring her mother, who just passed away, and the late Chadwick Boseman.

“Nice to see you again. Thank you to the Academy for recognizing the superhero that is a Black woman. She endure, she loves, she overcomes, she is every woman in this film. She is my mother. This past week, Mable Carter became an ancestor. This film prepared me for this moment. Chadwick, please take care of Mom. Ryan Coogler, Nate Moore, thank you both for your vision. Together, we are reshaping how culture is represented. The Marvel family, Kevin Feige, Victoria Alonso, Louis D’Esposito and their arsenal of genius, thank you. I share this with many dedicated artists whose hands and hearts helped manifest the costumes of Wakanda and Talokan. This is for my mother. She was 101.”

Carter has been nominated for four Oscars throughout her career (Malcolm X, Amistad and the two Black Panther movies.) And while she”is the first Black woman to win two awards, Denzel Washgton was the first Black person to do it when he won the Best Actor Oscar for Training Day in 2001. (His first Oscar was for Glory in 1990.)

In an interview with NPR, she talked about what she wanted to accomplish with her costumes. She said:

"It was very important that the materials not create a costume that looked too much like a costume. We really wanted it to be taken seriously. We didn't want it to be oversexualized, like the [way the] comics sometimes paint female warriors. We wanted them to be flat on the ground, inmartial arts boots. We wanted them not to be in cheerleader skirts and triangle tops. [We wanted] their bodies protected, and also, in the making of it, it needed to honor the female form."

Watch her full speech below.