The Broadway actress Audra McDonald paid homage to Ruby Dee as she made history this week at the Tony Awards. McDonald won best lead actress for her role as Billie Holiday in the production “Lady Day.” She’s the first actress to win six Tonys and the first to do so in four different categories of performance. She began her acceptance speech by thanking her late parents and concluded by honoring the legacy of other African-American women performers.

Audra McDonald: “I want to thank my mom and my dad up in heaven for disobeying the doctor’s orders and not medicating their hyperactive girl and finding out what she was into instead and pushing her into the theater. Thank you, Mom. … I want to thank all the shoulders of the strong and brave and courageous women that I’m standing on. I’m standing on Lena Horne’s shoulders, I’m standing on Maya Angelou’s shoulders, I’m standing on Diahann Carroll and Ruby Dee and, most of all, Billie Holiday. You deserved so much more than you were given when you were on this planet. This is for you, Billie! Thank you so much!”