TOP 50 SUCCESSFUL BLACK PEOPLE: 1. HALLE BERRY

Halle Maria Berry was born in Cleveland Ohio on August 14th 1966. She was born to a black father and a white mother. Her father abused her mother and her sister. After he worked out on them, her mother raised Halle and her sister.
As a child she dealt with racism from her peers.

She attended Bedford High school and had a lot of acheivements by being on the school editorial board. She was also a cheerleader and was the captain of the team and was president of her class.

She was voted as Prom Queen of her graduating class in 1984. She became Miss Ohio in 1985.

In in 1989 she was diagnosed with Type I diabetes.
In 1991, she made her first breakthrough by landing a movie role in Jungle Fever, a Spike Lee movie.

She got married to David Justice in 1992 and finalised the divorce in 1997. She was married to him until 1996. She was at one of her best in "Losing Isiah", a movie in which she played the role of a drug addict fighting a white woman in court to get back her son.She played the role of Dorothy Dandridge in the movie "Introducing Dorothy Dandridge" and earned herself an Emmy anda Golden globe Award. She played the role of Storm in the X Men movie in the year 2000. In 2001, she got married to a singer Eric Benet and that same year she landed a role in the movie Monster's Ball.It landed her an Oscar Award making her the first African American to win an Oscar Award.In 2004, she filed for a divorce from Eric Benet. At 41, she had her first baby with boyfriend gabrile Aubury, she welcomed Nahla into the world on March 16, 2008.

Halle is one of my choices for a successful black woman, she is also a good example of a "good sistah that cannot be held down" She has faced a lot of issues such as racism. It is not the best feeling in life to be regarded as either white or black in terms of color. I can imagine all the teasing and taunting of the little kids who were her age.I believe people like that have self esteem problems. She also witnessd domestic violence in her childhood and ended up with bad relationships as an adult. In that case she chose the relationships she wanted to be in and made decisions to either stay or leave. She also made name for herself in the moves she made and made history for being the first black woman to earn an Oscar Award. She opened doors for other black women showing them that anything could be achieved, you had to put your mind to it. She is black and successful and that it that.


SOURCES
People Magazine
www.people.com/people/halle_berry/biography/0,,20004436_20,00.html

Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halle_Berry#cite_note-80