Dave Chappelle made a rare awards show appearance at the 2025 NAACP Image Awards, where the comedian was honored with this year’s President’s Award.
During his speech, he thanked the NAACP for its efforts over its more-than-100-year-history and encouraged his fellow artists to keep working to tell their stories.
Chappelle, who recently won his sixth best comedy album Grammy and has won numerous Emmys in recent years but hasn’t accepted those awards in person, began by explaining why this honor was more important than the others.
“I won a lot of awards recently, but this one tonight is probably the most special award I’ve ever gotten, because it’s from this institution that represents these people, us, people of color, black people,” Chappelle, sporting a suit and tie, said when he took the stage, accepting his honor from NAACP president Derrick Johnson.
He went on to praise the NAACP for its work in Hollywood, to improve how Black people’s stories are represented.
“They have been chipping away at this industry so that people like me can stand up in front of people and tell my story or our stories,” Chappelle said. “Each and every artist in here, every opportunity we get, every time we’re on camera, on stage, we just keep chipping away at this monster of a machine. But tonight, man, tonight, I feel invigorated.”
He went on to joke that his mood was “because all my Netflix checks