NAACP Image Awards (redirected from NAACP Image Award)

NAACP Image Awards

Early March

The NAACP Image Awards is an annual event held in March at a gala ceremony in Los Angeles that is broadcast during prime time on the Fox Television Network. The awards are presented by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the long-established American civil rights organization. The awards recognize exceptional performances and achievements in the arts by people of color. They also honor outstanding champions of social justice. The 36 award categories include music, television, motion pictures, and literature, in addition to such honorary awards as the Chairman's Award, the President's Award, and the Image Awards Hall of Fame. Past winners form a roll call of exceptional achievers, from Stevie Wonder to Barak Obama.
The awards were established by the Beverly Hills/Holly ­ wood branch of the NAACP in 1967, at the peak of civil-rights activism in the United States. Troubled by the generally negative portrayal of the black experience in popular media, the chapter founded the awards to honor the best actors, writers, producers, and directors of color, and to recognize those in the entertainment industry who supported them. The NAACP has long been involved in the struggle for greater and more positive representation of African Americans in popular media, beginning with a protest of the 1915 film Birth of a Nation, by D.W. Griffiths.

CONTACTS:
NAACP Image Awards
4929 Wilshire Blvd., Ste. 310
Los Angeles, CA 90010
323-938-5268; fax: 323-938-5045
www.naacpimageawards.net/main.html

SOURCES:
AAH-2007, p. 325