Ruth E. Carter Dedicates Her Historic 2nd Oscar Win to Her Mother Who Passed Away a Week Ago | “This Is for My Mother”

Ruth E. Carter made history on March 12 as she became the first Black woman to receive two Oscars. Carter received her second Academy Award for contributing to Black Panther: Wakanda Forever's costume design. She had earlier won an Oscar for her work on the first Black Panther movie released in 2018.

She thanked the late Chadwick Boseman for his work and asked him to "look out" for her mother, Mabel Carter, who passed away recently at the age of 101, just a week before she received her award, per TODAY. "Thank you to the Academy for recognizing the superhero that is a Black woman. She endures, she loves, and she overcomes, and she is every woman in this film. She is my mother. This past week, Mabel Carter became an ancestor. This film prepared me for this moment. Chadwick, please take care of Mom," she spoke, getting emotional as she accepted the accolade.

Carter added that "how culture is represented" is being reshaped by the Marvel family, and that she's incredibly grateful to the team for this. "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 concluded.

Before this, Denzel Washington, according to Variety, became the first Black person to receive a second Oscar in 2002 for his performance in the movie Training Day. He had earlier won one for Glory in 1990. After winning the Oscar for Moonlight in 2016, Mahershala Ali won his second Oscar for Green Book in 2018. 

Carter cited creating the costumes for Wakanda as one of the greatest challenges of her career because she had to take into consideration the actual immersion of her creations in water. “We put it underwater, and everything just went up. I had to remake things that were tested. I had to weigh them down, and sometimes they were too light, other times they were too heavy,” she told Variety at the time.

Carter spoke to the media after winning and expressed her desire to serve as an example for upcoming artists, especially Black women. "Listen, I pulled myself up on my bootstraps," she said. "I started (in a) single-parent household — I wanted to be a costume designer," she explained.

"I dealt with adversity in an industry that sometimes didn't look like me and I endured. So I feel that this win opens the door for other young costume designers that, you know, may not think that this industry is for them. And hopefully, they'll see me and see my story and think that they can win an Oscar too," she expressed.

References:

https://www.today.com/popculture/awards/ruth-e-carter-oscars-history-first-black-woman-rcna74598

https://variety.com/2023/artisans/news/ruth-carter-oscars-record-black-woman-winners-1235545868/

Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Arturo Holmes