Sheryl Lee Ralph Gives Rousing Speech After Winning First Emmy Award For 'Abbott Elementary': 'This Is What Believing'

The legendary Sheryl Lee Ralph scored her very first Emmy win this Emmys season. Ralph took home the award for best-supporting actress in a comedy for her role in Abbott Elementary as Barbara Howard.

Ralph took to the stage and began singing “Endangered Species” by Dianne Reeves:

She began:

“I am an endangered species / But I sing no victim’s song / I am a woman I am an artist / And I know where my voice belongs.”

Ralph continued her speech, “To anyone who has ever, ever had a dream and thought your dream wasn’t, wouldn’t, couldn’t come true, I am here to tell you that this is what believing looks like. This is what striving looks like. And don’t you ever, ever give up on you. Because if you get a Quinta Brunson in your corner, if you get a husband like mine in your corner, if you get children like mine in your corner, and if you get friends like everybody who voted for me, cheered for me, loved me … thank you, thank you!”

This the second Emmy win for 'Abbott Elementar'

Prior to her role in Abbot Elementary, Ralph played Deena Jones in the original cast of the Dreamgirls on Broadway which procured a Tony nomination. Aside from many other roles,  she worked her way into the hearts of another generation as Dee Mitchell, the stepmother of Moesha and Miles on the hit show, Moesha.