BET Awards: Tyler Perry's studio land was Confederate base, now it's 'owned by one Negro'
Taraji P. Henson is grateful to Tyler Perry for giving her acting opportunities. But she really appreciates the entertainment powerhouse for paying her what she was worth when others wouldn't.
As Henson presented the actor-writer-director ("Madea" franchise, "House of Payne") with the Ultimate Icon Award at Sunday's BET Awards in Los Angeles, she referenced an esteemed career that has produced 21 theatrical plays, nine TV shows, 22 films and huge box-office numbers.
Besides his on-screen production, however, Henson lauded Perry's efforts to create fair opportunities for performers behind the scenes.
"In a time where my counterparts were making way more than I was ... Tyler Perry was the first to pay me my worth," said Henson, whose first film with Perry was 2008's “The Family That Preys.” "A black man did that and that means the world to me."
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In his speech, Perry honored his mother and a group of powerful women who were her friends. They picked each other up when they talked about their pain and he tried to do the same for his mother when his father beat her.
He told a childhood story about guiding a man across a six-lane road on the way to school and connected that to his mother, that he "helped her cross" from the pain to a moment of laughter.
That philosophy has gone into his producing and directing career, Perry said.
"When I started hiring Taraji, Viola Davis and Idris Elba, they couldn't get jobs in this town but God blessed me to be in a position to be able to hire them. I was trying to help somebody cross," he said in his moving comments.
That commitment became bigger when he opened his own studio, complete with 11 soundstages, in Atlanta. He said he built it in one of the city's poor neighborhoods to show young black children that they could succeed, too.
The location also happened to be the grounds of a former Confederate Army base.
That "meant there were Confederate soldiers on that base, plotting and planning on how to keep 3.9 million negroes enslaved. Now, that land is owned by one negro," Perry said, as the Microsoft Theater audience rose to applaud.
Perry acknowledged efforts by movements such as #OscarsSoWhite to open doors for people of color in Hollywood, but he said he's charted his own path to create opportunity.
"You all go ahead and do that," he said. "While you're fighting for a seat at the table, I'll be down in Atlanta building my own."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: BET Awards: Tyler Perry's studio land was Confederate base, now it's 'owned by one Negro'
