Viola Davis had an Emmy first last night, winning Best Actress in a Drama for How to Get Away with Murder. That seemed somewhat odd. 65 years of television, and she is the first black actress to get the nod? Hmm. Maybe Hollywood is not as progressive as they like to think. Do as they say, not as they do.

Harry Truman was President when television started. WWII had ended, and the Korean War hadn’t started yet. Jackie Robinson was starting his third year after integrating baseball with the Dodgers. Martin Luther King’s ‘March on Washington’ was 15 years away.

The social upheaval of the civil right’s movement integrating schools and lunch counters and public transportation was years and years away. Peggy on Mannix (1967) would have been one of the few black women on TV at all. Julia a year later was the first to put a black woman in a starring role. That was 1968. In 1971 it was back to a bit part with Birdie on The Walton’s.

Co-starring roles came about with Louise Jefferson and Florida Evans, a decade later came Clair Huxtable. My memory goes kind of blank after that. So we have one series that ran for three years that starred a black woman. In 1968. I’m sure there were loads and loads and loads of others, my memory just fails me.

Just 65 years later in 2015 a black woman wins the first Emmy. Kind of staggering isn’t it? Just look at all the shows today starring black women. Good old Hollywood. Julia was the first to have a black woman in a starring role, was it also the only one?