NAACP Image Awards

The award ceremony was first organized and presented on August 13, 1967, by activists Maggie Hathaway, Sammy Davis Jr. and Willis Edwards, all three of whom were leaders of the Beverly Hills-Hollywood NAACP branch.[1][2] While it was first taped for television by NBC (which broadcast the awards from 1987 to 1994 in January, on weeks when Saturday Night Live wasn't airing a new episode), it would only be broadcast in primetime beginning in 1996. Due to changes in timing of the awards, there was no awards ceremony held the following years: 1973, as the timing was changed to honor a full calendar year early in the following year (reverted to a "late-in-year" ceremony for 1981–1990); 1991, as the timing returned to late in a calendar year to honor that same year; 1995, but note that the reasoning is not clear.

The first live broadcast of the awards, also on the Fox Network, occurred in 2007 for its 38th edition (up until 2007, the ceremony had been broadcast with tape delay) and the annual ceremonies usually take place in or around the Los Angeles area, in February or early March. The 44th edition aired on NBC. Sources have had trouble verifying the winners in the top categories from 1983 to 1995.

The New York firm Society Awards manufactures the trophy since its redesign in 2008.

In 1987, the NAACP came under fire for dropping their Best Actress award for that year. They defended this position, citing a lack of meaningful roles for black women.[14] In 1990, they were criticized once again for not awarding Best Actress.[15] This was the fourth time it could not find enough nominees for Best Actress.[15] Sandra Evers-Manly, president of the organization's Beverly Hills/Hollywood branch, said, "The [film] industry has yet to show diversity or present realistic leading roles for African-American women."[15]

In several instances, nominees have been perceived as “undeserving” or “unworthy” of NAACP recognition by members of the media, fellow celebrities, as well as the general public; in their own defense, some NAACP representatives have stated that the overall quality of an artist's work is the salient issue. This would render certain factors, such as criminal charges or the nominee’s past, being inconsequential in this regard. For example, in 1994, Tupac Shakur was nominated for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture (for the film Poetic Justice), despite sexual assault charges being filed against him in December of 1993.[16] Furthermore, Shakur had been accused of felony counts of forcible sodomy and unlawful detainment in New York City; a woman alleged that he and two male accomplices held her captive, in a hotel room, and restricted her movements, holding her down as a fourth accomplice sodomized her.[17] Shakur was also indicted for two counts of aggravated assault, in an unrelated incident, in which he supposedly shot and wounded two off-duty police officers.[17] In the same year, Martin Lawrence was criticized for winning Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series and Outstanding Comedy Series after his show was criticized for its sexual content.[17] In 2004, R. Kelly's Chocolate Factory was nominated for Outstanding Album[18] while he was under indictment for charges related to child pornography.[19]

Other nominees have faced controversy due to their portrayals of major civil rights figures. In 2003, the movie Barbershop received five nominations, including Outstanding Motion Picture and Outstanding Supporting Actor (for Cedric the Entertainer's performance); during the film, Cedric's character makes pejorative remarks about Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., Michael Jackson, and Jesse Jackson. This content elicited criticism, including Rosa Parks' refusal to attend the awards ceremony.[20] The hip-hop group OutKast received six nominations in 2004, and criticism soon followed—for both them and the NAACP—due to the name of one of their songs being “Rosa Parks”. The song had resulted in Parks suing OutKast for defamation over the use of her name.[19]

• Official website