Chadwick Boseman Makes History at NAACP Image Awards With Multiple Wins

The late Chadwick Boseman won big at the 52nd NAACP Image Awards on Saturday night. The ceremony, which aired live on BET and other ViacomCBS networks from the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, saw Boseman win awards for his last two movies, Spike Lee's Da 5 Bloods and the film adaptation of August Wilson's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. Boseman died on Aug. 18, 2020, at 43 following a battle with colon cancer. Boseman's victories earned waves of applause on Twitter as his widow, Simone Ledward Boseman, accepted the awards on his behalf.

Boseman won Outstanding Actor on a Motion Picture for Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, in which he stars as an ambitious jazz musician. The performance already earned Boseman an Oscar nomination. Earlier this month, he won Best Actor in a Drama for the film at the Golden Globes. Ledward Boseman delivered a tearful speech in accepting the award.

"He would thank God. He would thank his parents. He would thank his ancestors for their guidance and their sacrifices," Ledward Boseman said in her Golden Globes speech, reports Variety. "He would say something beautiful, something inspiring, something that would amplify that little voice inside of all of us that tells you, 'You can,' that tells you to keep going, that calls you back to what you are meant to be doing at this moment in history." She went on to thank Boseman's co-stars, the film's director, George C. Wolfe, Netflix, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, and Boseman's mentor, Denzel Washington.