Oscars 2015: The full list of winners, John Legend talks incarceration of Black men and voting rights during his Oscar acceptance speech, Legend also talked voting rights in a one-on-one- interview with Cleveland Urban News.Com in 2012 as he campaigned in Ohio for the reelection of President Obama....Watch the moving Oscar performance of 'Glory' by Legend and Common here at Cleveland Urban News.Com, Ohio's leader in Black digital news
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| John Stephens (John Legend) (right) and Lonnie Lynn (Common) won the Oscar for best original song for 'Glory,' from the film Selma. During his acceptance speech, Legend spoke on voting rights and the high rate of incarceration of Black men in America. Selma lost in the category of best picture to Birdman. (Photo by Getty Images). Watch the 2015 Oscars performance of 'Glory' by Legend and Common in the video below, a moving performance that drew a standing ovation. |
LOS ANGELES, California-Ohio native John Legend and hip hop artist Common took home the Oscar at the 87th Academy Awards Sunday night for best original song for 'Glory' from the Selma movie soundtrack, with Legend condemning the high rate of incarceration of Black men during his acceptance speech, and saying that voting rights that Blacks and others fought to gain during the Civil Rights movement have been compromised. The Grammy award winning artist took the same voting rights stance in 2012 during a one-on-one interview with Cleveland Urban News.Com while he campaigned in Ohio for the reelection of President Obama. (Editor's note: Read the full list of the 2015 Oscar winners at the end of this article, and read the one-on-one interview by Cleveland Urban News.Com with Legend, published in 2012, by clicking on the link below)
"We know that the voting rights they fought for 50 years ago are being compromised in this country today," said Legend during his acceptance speech on Sunday, one that drew a standing ovation, as did his moving Oscar performance with Common earlier that night that brought some audience members to tears.
He added that "more Black men are under correctional control today than were in slavery."
Legend's comments on voting were relative to state laws adopted by Republican dominated state legislatures across the country that suppress voting and as to provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that removed barriers to voting in Southern U.S. states, provisions that are facing court scrutiny in recent years to the detriment of the Black community.
The U.S. Supreme Court, in 2013, struck down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act that required federal court approval for state legislatures to adopt or to substantively amend voting rights laws, a previous mandate designed to counter historical racial discrimination in voting in some states. Ohio is not among those discretionary states, though it and others are impacted by the ruling.
A native of Springfield, Ohio, a city 25 miles northeast of Dayton, Legend, 36, earned a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Pennsylvania before becoming a famous songwriter, musician and R&B singer.
During the interview with Cleveland Urban News.Com, which was published on September 7, 2012, Legend spoke on women's rights, abortion rights, and gay rights, all of which he supports, though he is not gay, and is married to model Chrissy Teigen. And he addressed a number of other issues, including his professional relationship and friendship with singer Kanye West and Kim Kardashian.
Voting rights were at the heart of the interview, and Legend is passionate and well versed on the controversial subject.
"As you know Republican dominated state legislatures across the country have passed or are attempting to pass state laws that suppress the Black vote. How do you feel about it?" asked Cleveland Urban News.Com editor-in-chief Kathy Wray Coleman during the 2012 interview with Legend.
"Well, I think it’s a tragedy," said Legend in responding to the question. "Lately, the Republicans have been admitting that they just want to suppress certain votes to win the elections for their side."
Legend said also during that interview that in 'Pennsylvania, you saw that one of the state politicians there stated that the state's voter identification laws would help Mitt Romney win,' and in Ohio, "the state official [Republican Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted] stated that he didn't want to extend voting hours in the Democratic communities because he didn't want to do anything to help Black people vote."
"It’s a clear violation of equal rights," Legend told Cleveland Urban News.Com, Ohio's most read digital Black newspaper.
Selma was also nominated for best picture but lost Sunday night to Birdman.
Black actors received not one academy awards nomination, prompting widespread criticism, including from Oscar Host Neil Patrick Harris, who joked to the audience that "tonight we honor Hollywood's best and whitest, I mean brightest.”
A full list of 2015 Oscar winners is as follows:
Best Picture
Birdman — Alejandro G. Inarritu, John Lesher and James W. Skotchdopole
Best Director
Alejandro González Iñárritu — Birdman
Best Actor
Eddie Redmayne — The Theory of Everything
Best Actress
Julianne Moore — Still Alice
Best Supporting Actor
J.K. Simmons — Whiplash
Best Supporting Actress
Patricia Arquette — Boyhood
Achievement in Costume Design
Milena Canonero — The Grand Budapest Hotel
Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling
Frances Hannon and Mark Coulier — The Grand Budapest Hotel
Best Foreign Language Film
Ida – Pawel Pawlikowski
Best Live Action Short Film
The Phone Call — Matt Kirkby and James Lucas
Best Documentary Short Subject
Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1 — Ellen Goosenberg Kent and Dana Perry
Original Screenplay
Birdman – Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Jr. and Armando Bo
Achievement in Sound Mixing
Whiplash — Craig Mann, Ben Wilkins, Thomas Curley
Achievement in Sound Editing
American Sniper — Alan Robert Murray Bub Asman
Achievement in Visual Effects
Interstellar — Ian Hunter, Scott Fisher, Andrew Lockley and Paul Franklin
Best Animated Short Film
Feast — Patrick Osborne and Kristina Reed
Best Animated Movie
Big Hero Six — Don Hall, Chris Williams and Roy Conli
Achievement in Production Design
The Grand Budapest Hotel — Adam Stockhausen and Anna Pinnock
Achievement in Cinematography
Birdman — Emannuel Lubezki
Achievement in Film Editing
Whipalsh — Tom Cross
Best Documentary Feature
Citizen Four — Laura Poitras, Mathilde Bonnefoy and Dirk Wilutzky
Best Original Song
Glory — John Stephens and Lonnie Lynn
Best Original Score
The Grand Budapest Hotel — Alexandre Desplat
Best Adapted Screenplay
The Imitation Game – Graham Moore
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