Black-ish co-star and Pattern Beauty Founder Tracee Ellis Ross will procure an honorary doctorate from Spelman College.
Spelman College will present the award-winning actress with the honorary degree, Doctor of Fine Arts, during its Commencement Ceremony on Sunday, May 21, 2023.
The honor adds to Ross’ long list of achievements as an entertainer, businesswoman and activist. She received 23 NAACP Image Award nominations for Oustanding Actress in a Comedy Series from 2002 to 2023 for her work in Black-ish, Girlfriends, Five and Reed Between the Lines, winning nine of them.
The “Love Myself” singer obtained a Golden Globe award in 2017 for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy, recognizing her work in Black-ish as Rainbow Johnson. Essence honored the Mixed-ish actress with the Black Women in Hollywood Fierce & Fearless Award in 2016, and Ross won a BET Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for her role as Joan in Girlfriends.
Ross has been outspoken about Black women’s power and beauty, inspiring women to embrace their individuality and preclude others from seizing Black women’s power.
During her acceptance speech at Essence’s Black Women in Hollywood luncheon in 2016, she conveyed the importance of the event.
“It empowers and connects us by reminding us that while we are all the same, we are also wonderfully different, wonderfully unique and wonderfully human,” she told the audience. “The Essence Black Women in Hollywood Luncheon will help remind the next generation and all of us what it means to be a Black woman today.”
She continued, “This room is filled with women that do not always get to be recognized or feel how great and important we are. Joining each other here today, witnessing each other, experiencing each other, reveling in each other reminds us that we must see our own strength, depth, beauty, joy, texture and importance so that others can see it too.”
It is because Ross wants Black women to embrace their community’s natural beauty that she created Pattern, a hair product dedicated to providing women (and men) hydration and shine to their natural curls.
“Love the hair you see first thing in the morning in your bathroom. Be free. Embrace your gorgeous. Wear your crown and your glory,” Pattern’s website read.
Spelman College graduation ceremony begins at 3 p.m. on May 21, 2023, at the Georgia International Convention Center in College Park, GA.
