Sheryl Lee Ralph accepts her first Emmy. (Photo: YouTube/Television Academy)

The Queen Is Dead.

The first time I ever read those words, I was staring at the cover a 1986 album by the British rock band The Smiths. It took 36 years for those four words to become a real-life headline, and when they finally did, no-one I know was celebrating. (The album’s title song, for those who have never heard it, is a brutal condemnation of the British monarchy with lyrics written and sung by The Smiths’ frontman, staunch anti-royalist Morrissey.)

A number of my friends — all of them American, all of them White — reached out to tell me how devastated they were by Elizabeth II’s passing on September 8 at age 96. For many, the world has stopped turning. (One of my friends actually used that analogy to describe how she felt in this historic moment.) But not for me. I’ve never felt any connection to Elizabeth II, and I’d be lying if I said I am in mourning. Maybe the passing of Olivia Newton-John several weeks ago took all the mourning out of me.

Or maybe it’s just that I don’t really have any reason to mourn right now. I’ve seen countless documentaries about Queen Elizabeth II over the years and, in the past week, I’ve listened to and read numerous eulogies and obituaries. They’ve all emphasized her dignity and her dedication to the role into which she was born. Elizabeth II, by all accounts, was great for her country.

Did she make the world a better place? That’s a complicated question to answer, but if we were talking about Princess Diana, it would be an easier one. That might be partly why Diana’s death 25 years ago shattered me in a way no famous person’s death did until Olivia Newton-John’s.

If I’ve shed any tears this week (and I have), they’ve had nothing to do with the news of the century. Several people I know have pointed out that we are living through a pivotal moment in world history, and everyone should be paying attention. The changing of the royal guard is something that typically happens once in a generation.

You know what else happens just once in a generation? A Black woman wins the Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. That game-changer transpired on Monday night. In the general scheme of things, the Emmys are not a matter of life and death. But when certain people win an industry’s biggest prize, especially a Black woman in a space where Black women are underrepresented and underappreciated, it can change lives. There were tears, and some of them were mine.

Sheryl Lee Ralph — an actress I’ve been watching my entire life, an actress who has spent most of her long career toiling in supporting roles, often under the radar — finally got her roses. You might recognize her (or not) from scattered TV and movie appearances in the late ’70s (she played George Jefferson’s secretary in a 1979 episode of The Jeffersons), or from the ’80s sitcom It’s a Living (she appeared during the final three seasons, 1986 to 1989, and received fifth billing in the opening credits), or from her role opposite Denzel Washington in the 1989 movie The Mighty Quinn, or from playing Brandy’s mom in the ’90s sitcom Moesha.

She’s come close before. She was nominated for a Tony Award for originating the role of Deena Jones in the 1981 Broadway musical Dreamgirls. (That’s the part Beyoncé played in the 2006 film.) Unfortunately for Ralph, the bouquets all went to the the immensely talented Jennifer Holliday, who had the good fortune of getting to sing the show’s show-stopping number, “And I’m Telling You I’m Not Going,” winning both a Tony and a Grammy for her effort. The rest is Black Entertainment History.

Then on Monday night, after decades of waiting in the wings, Ralph finally made some Black Entertainment History of her own: She won the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series Emmy for her role on the ABC comedy series Abbott Elementary, a sitcom that spotlights Black women and shows how smart and, yes, funny they than can be. (It was her first-ever nomination.)

Ralph is only the second Black actress to take that particular award. The first and last time it happened was in 1987, when Jackée Harry won for her iconic ’80s role as Sandra on the sitcom 227. It took 35 years for another Black actress to reap the same reward. (Meanwhile, we’re still waiting for a Black actress to follow in the footsteps of the late Isabel Sanford, who in 1981 became the first and still only Black woman to win the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series Emmy for playing Louise “Weezy” Jefferson on The Jeffersons.)

Ralph’s triumph is something that, like the death of a British monarch, apparently happens only once in a generation. But it likely won’t be featured front and center on the cover of any mainstream magazines in the coming weeks. They’ll be too busy celebrating the life and (still) mourning the death of a monarch from a country an ocean away. As a gay Black American who didn’t benefit from a single minute of Elizabeth II’s life, my emotional focus this week will continue to be on Sheryl Lee Ralph.

Her win has finally sunk in, but I still cry every time I look at the YouTube clip where she accepts her prize by singing “Endangered Species,” a 1994 song co-written and sung by jazz artist Diane Reeves, another “Blackfamous” performer who, like Ralph, has been sorely overlooked for decades and can still kill it at the same age (65).

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

Several months ago, I pitched a feature story on Sheryl Lee Ralph pegged to her role on Abbott Elementary. My boss had no idea who she was. I assured her Ralph was worthy of coverage. After all, I said, “She is Black Entertainment Royalty.” My boss laughed and approved the story, because she trusted my judgment. I wonder if she knows who Ralph is now.

Sheryl Lee Ralph will never be as celebrated as a dead British monarch. The world will never stop turning on her behalf. She will never do anything (not even die) and attract four billion viewers around the world. But in the annals of Black history, this is a moment. She’s having a moment — at last.

“To anyone who has ever, ever had a dream and thought your dream wasn’t, couldn’t, wouldn’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.” — Sheryl Lee Ralph

There’s not a little Black girl alive who can dream big, work hard, and one day become Queen of the United Kingdom and 14 Commonwealth Realms. But anyone of any race can dream big, work hard and grow up to be Sheryl Lee Ralph. She’s inspirational and aspirational. That is why, where I live, watching her on the Emmy stage singing “Endangered Species” while accepting her flowers, finally, is the once-in-a-generation moment of the past two weeks that matters most.