oprah winfrey

     While Winfrey has been cited as the richest African American of the 20th century, she does not come from a rich, or even middle class, family. She was born in an economically troubled neighborhood and raised by a single-teenaged mother in the city of Milwaukee. Oprah, named after a biblical character, had a name no one could pronounce, so her family and friends starting calling her Oprah. After giving her birth her mother left, and traveled north.

Oprah while being raised by her grandmother lived in terrible conditions.

Oprah during church would recite poems, and verses from the bible. Soon the church and the entire neighbourhood knew she had a gift and was nicknamed, "The Little Speaker". This would soon prompt her to become a woman with a strong perspective, which millions across the world would want to have insight on. This prepared her for The Oprah Winfrey Show.

Due to her ability to read and write before the age of three, when enrolled in school she was often promoted several grades ahead of her age. Oprah at the age of six went to live with her mother, Vernita Lee. Vernita worked as a maid, so Oprah was often left alone at home with her cousins. Oprah due to her busy mother was paid little attention to at home, this is what prompted Oprah to started misbehaving and talking back to her mother. Vernita Lee then decided it was best Oprah live with her father in Nashville Tennessee. Oprah while living in Tennessee, found out her mother was pregnant and her mother requested for her to come back to Milwaukee to live with her mother and half-sister. When Oprah was nine she was raped by her nineteen year old cousin who was baby sitting her. This wouldn't be the only time she was sexually abused she would then be sexually abused by her cousin, a family friend, her mother's boyfriend, and her uncle during her stay in Milwaukee. Toward all these incidents, she never told a soul because the predators swore her to silence.

Oprah's mother sent her to live once again with her father in Nashville,Tennessee. Oprah's father was very strict and made education the number-one priority for Oprah. Oprah attended Nashville East High School.

                                    Winfrey became an excellent student, participating as well in the drama club, debate club, and student council. In an Elks Club speaking contest, she won a full scholarship to Tennessee State University. The following year she was invited to a White House Conference on Youth. Winfrey was crowned Miss Fire Prevention by WVOL, a local Nashville radio station, and was hired by the station to read afternoon newscasts.

Winfrey became Miss Black Nashville and Miss Tennessee during her freshman year at Tennessee State. The Nashville Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) affiliate offered her a job; Winfrey turned it down twice, but finally took the advice of a speech teacher, who reminded her that job offers from CBS were "the reason people go to college." The show was seen each evening on WTVF-TV, and Winfrey was Nashville's first African American female coanchor of the evening news. She was nineteen years old and still a sophomore in college.

After Winfrey graduated, WJZ-TVin Baltimore, Maryland, scheduled her to do the local news updates, called cut-ins, during Good Morning, America, and soon she was moved to the morning talk show Baltimore Is Talking with cohost Richard Sher. After seven years on the show, the general manager of WLS-TV, American Broadcasting company 's (ABC) Chicago affiliate, saw Winfrey in an audition tape sent in by her producer, Debra DiMaio. At the time her ratings in Baltimore were better than Phil Donahue's, a national talk-show host, and she and DiMaio were hired.

Winfrey moved to Chicago, Illinois, in January 1984 and took over as anchor on A.M. Chicago, a morning talk show that was consistently last in the ratings. She changed the emphasis of the show from traditional women's issues to current and controversial (debatable) topics, and after one month the show was even with Donahue's program. Three months later it had inched ahead. In September 1985 the program, renamed the Oprah Winfrey Show, was expanded to one hour. As a result, Donahue moved to New York City.

In 1985 Quincy Jones (1933–) saw Winfrey on television and thought she would make a fine actress in a movie he was coproducing with director Steven Spielberg (1946–). The film was based on the Alice Walker (1944–) novel The Color Purple. Her only acting experience until then had been in a one-woman show, The History of Black Women Through Drama and Song, which she performed during an African American theater festival in 1978.

Oprah's made her debut as a film actress in the 1985 period drama film, The Color Purple. Oprah played a troubled housewife named Sofia. Oprah was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. This movie went on to become a Broadway musical adaptation. In 1998 Oprah starred in the movie, Beloved which she also produced. Winfrey played the character Sethe who was a former slave. Winfrey has also acted in several movies such as Charlotte's web (2006), Bee Movie(2007), and The Princess and the frog (2009).

Oprah Winfrey in 1998 received an Achievement Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. In 2011 Oprah Winfrey received a Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award from the Academy Of Motion Pictures Arts And Sciences.

 

Oprah Winfrey will forever be remembered as an innovator through the landmarks she made, becoming the first female African American to host a television show. Inspiring millions of people across the world, discussing significant issues on her show such as equal rights toward genders, racism,poverty, and many others. Oprah will be seen as an icon someone who paved the way for others to become successful.