Oprah Winfrey Brings Down The House With Cecil B. DeMille Award Acceptance Speech

Talk-show host, actress, producer and humanitarian Oprah Winfrey accepted the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the Golden Globes on Sunday night with a speech referencing the civil rights movement as well as the MeToo movement that earned her multiple standing ovations.

Winfrey became the first black woman to be given the award, which was presented in Beverly Hills, California. She told the story of Recy Taylor, who died just days earlier, and her fight for justice after her rape by six white men in 1944.

She spoke about the feelings she had as a young girl watching Sidney Poitier win the best-actor Oscar in 1964. She likened the pride she felt watching Poitier, the first black man to win the best-actor Oscar, to the impact she hoped she could have on young women.

“His tie was white and of course his skin was black and I had never seen a black man being celebrated like that,” Winfrey said.

She expressed gratitude for Taylor and all the women who were silenced when they spoke their truth to powerful men, the women who worked in factories, farms, as domestic workers and in academia, whose names will never be known.

“For too long women have not been heard or believed if they dared to speak their truth to the power of those men,” Winfrey said. “But their time is up. Their time is up. Their time is up,” she said to a standing ovation.

But she ended by saying many women and men — some in that Golden Globes audience — will “take us to the time when nobody ever has to say ‘me too’ again.”

WATCH: Oprah’s Epic 2018 Golden Globes Speech Gets Rave Reviews From Celebs

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