At the 74th Academy Awards on March 24, 2002, Denzel Washington won Best Actor for Training Day, playing a corrupt Los Angeles police detective, a role that went against the good guys he was usually known for. It was his second Oscar, after Best Supporting Actor for playing a defiant Civil War soldier in Glory, and his third nomination in the Best Actor category. He became only the second Black actor to win the award in the 74 years of the Oscars, after Sidney Poitier in 1964.

Poitier had received an honorary Oscar about an hour earlier, and Washington turned his acceptance speech into a tribute to him. "Forty years I've been chasing Sidney," he said, "and what do they do? They go and give it to me in the same night." He added, "I'll always be chasing you, Sidney. I'll always be following in your footsteps." Washington also noted that before Poitier, Black actors were given supporting roles…