Happy Black History Month, BET fam, and welcome to your weekly installment of: The Blackest Moment of the Week! This series explores fun, informational, silly, and or incredible revelations in the zeitgeist every week this month.

For the fourth installment, we honor the legendary Bill Duke who just received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame! Duke is an actor and director and has been long hailed as the “Godfather of African American cinema.” The 83‑year‑old is a towering figure in Black film. He received the 2,837th star on Hollywood Boulevard on Feb. 26, 2026 – fittingly on his birthday and during Black History Month. His Hollywood star ceremony was pure celebration and it doubled as a birthday party. In a photo-op worthy of the occasion, Duke beamed for the camera the way he’s long lit up the screen, a life’s achievement now literally set in brass.

Duke’s résumé spans iconic ’70s and ’80s movies (“Car Wash,” “Predator,” “Commando”) and edgy indie hits (“Deep Cover,” “A Rage in Harlem,” “The Killing Floor”). He’s just as respected behind the camera – he won a Directors Guild Lifetime Achievement Tribute – and throughout his career he’s been credited with “pushing boundaries, amplifying underrepresented voices, and shaping generations of film and television”. In short, Duke’s been a mentor, humanitarian, and on-screen powerhouse for decades, truly earning the Chamber’s praise as an “award-winning actor, director, producer, and humanitarian” whose influence spans more than fifty years.

Family, friends, and fans – including Walk of Famer Glynn Turman and Black film luminaries from the American Black Film Festival – gathered to cheer when Duke’s brass plaque was unveiled. “The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce is proud to welcome [Bill Duke] to the Walk of Fame during Black History Month,” said producer Ana Martinez, promising a celebration of Duke’s “influential career and enduring legacy”.

Duke’s star feels long overdue – and not just in the normal sense of Hollywood delay. In recent years, critics have pointed out how often Black legends have to wait years, even decades, for Walk of Fame recognition. The Root recently highlighted that the 2025–26 class “once again see[s] a list of notable Black stars who are finally getting their well deserved recognition,” including Misty Copeland, Fantasia and Busta Rhymes – and Duke himself. (Then it immediately asked: how did it take this long for some of them?)

The reasons are bureaucratic, but no less frustrating. To get a Walk of Fame star, nominees must be approved by the Chamber and sponsor their own star – currently an around $75,000 fee (some reports say $55K–75K). That red tape and steep cost can be a real obstacle, especially for older stars or those without big studios backing them. As The Root noted, “the Chamber’s approval and the fee are often an obstacle for older artists” – so Black veterans (who never had many institutional advantages) sometimes wait “much longer than it should” to receive their flowers.

Just look at history: Hattie McDaniel (the first Black Oscar-winner) only got her two stars in 1960, eight years after she died – thirty years after her historic “Gone with the Wind” Oscar. Dorothy Dandridge (first Black Best Actress nominee) was inducted posthumously in 1983, almost 30 years after her “Carmen Jones” Oscar nod. Sidney Poitier didn’t get a star until 1994, even though he won Best Actor in 1964 (the first Black man to do so). Simply put, Duke’s star reminds us of an old Hollywood adage: if you’re a Black legend, you often need decades of excellence before the brass door opens.

That lag makes Duke’s moment that much sweeter. As one colleague joked, “the predator has been captured” – only this time with a smiling tribute instead of a spacecraft. But beyond the gags and the selfies, this star carries cultural weight. It adds another bold stroke to Hollywood’s slowly diversifying mural of fame. Each Black star on the boulevard is a reminder of voices that had to beat the odds to be heard.

Duke’s star coming during Black History Month symbolizes recognition not just of one man’s career, but of generations of Black creatives behind him. The ceremony itself even previewed “The Bill Duke Experience,” an upcoming immersive tribute (and a TV channel of his films), suggesting Hollywood is trying to build on this momentum. As Martinez put it, this event will “bring together colleagues, friends, and fans to celebrate Mr. Duke’s influential career and enduring legacy in Hollywood.”

So here’s to Bill Duke: his name is finally etched in the sidewalk, but his legacy looms way above it. This is the Blackest moment of the week – a moment of pride, history, and good-natured celebration. Hollywood can’t claim to know its own history without honoring true trailblazers like Duke. His star ceremony showed just how “proud” Hollywood is to recognize his “decades-long contributions.”