HATTIE McDANIEL
1895 – 1952
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By Dale Ricardo Shields
All Rights Reserved – iforcolor.org
“Why should I complain about making seven hundred dollars a week playing a maid?
If I didn’t, I’d be making seven dollars a week actually being one”
A trailblazing American actress, singer-songwriter, and comedian who became the first African American to win an Academy Award.
Hattie McDaniel Defies Critics in 1947
Historical Oscar Win
Achievement: On February 29, 1940, McDaniel won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Mammy in the 1939 film Gone with the Wind.
Segregated Ceremony: Due to the racial segregation laws of the era, the ceremony at the Ambassador Hotel’s Cocoanut Grove nightclub required special permission for her to enter. She was forced to sit at a small, segregated table at the back of the room, away from her white co-stars.
The “Missing” Oscar: McDaniel bequeathed her Oscar plaque to Howard University. It disappeared in the late 1960s or early 1970s and has never been found. In 2023, the Academy officially presented a replacement to the university.
Career Highlights
Radio Pioneer: She was the first African American woman to sing on American radio (1920) and later became the first Black actor to star in their own weekly radio program, The Beulah Show (1947).
Filmography: Although she appeared in over 300 films, she was credited in only about 80 due to the era’s practices.
Notable films include:
Judge Priest (1934)
Alice Adams (1935)
Show Boat (1936)
Since You Went Away (1944)
Song of the South (1946)
Stereotypes and Criticism: McDaniel was often typecast in domestic servant roles, which drew criticism from figures like Walter White of the NAACP for perpetuating stereotypes. She famously defended her choices, stating, “I’d rather play a maid than be one”.
Civil Rights and Activism
Housing Victory: In 1945, McDaniel helped lead a successful legal challenge against “restrictive covenants” that sought to evict Black residents from the Sugar Hill neighborhood in Los Angeles. The case contributed to the eventual Supreme Court ruling that such racial housing restrictions were unconstitutional.
War Effort: During World War II, she chaired the Negro Division of the Hollywood Victory Committee, organizing entertainment for Black troops.
Death and Memorials – Passing: McDaniel died of breast cancer on October 26, 1952, at age 59.
Burial: Her final wish to be buried in Hollywood Cemetery was denied due to its whites-only policy at the time. She was instead buried at Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery. In 1999, a memorial cenotaph was finally placed in her honor at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
Honors: She has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (for radio and film) and was featured on a U.S. postage stamp in 2006.
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FINALLY!
Film Academy To Replace Hattie McDaniel’s ‘Gone With The Wind’ Oscar; Howard University To Get Statuette
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Academy Museum said today that they will gift a replacement of Hattie McDaniel’s 1939 Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for Gone with the Wind to the Howard University Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts.
The school will host a ceremony titled “Hattie’s Come Home” at its Ira Aldridge Theater in Washington, D.C., on October 1.
“Hattie McDaniel was a groundbreaking artist who changed the course of cinema and impacted generations of performers who followed her. We are thrilled to present a replacement of Hattie McDaniel’s Academy Award to Howard University,” Academy Museum Director and President Jacqueline Stewart and Academy CEO Bill Kramer said in a statement. “This momentous occasion will celebrate Hattie McDaniel’s remarkable craft and historic win.”
McDaniel received not a statuette but a plaque, as was customary for supporting performance winners from 1936-42. McDaniel bequeathed her Academy Award to Howard University upon her death in 1952, and the award was displayed at the university’s drama department until the late 1960s. Its whereabouts are unknown today.
McDaniel’s award stands out in Academy history in that it would be 51 years before another Black woman would win an acting Oscar, when Whoopi Goldberg took the Supporting prize for 1990’s Ghost.
“When I was a student in the College of Fine Arts at Howard University, in what was then called the Department of Drama, I would often sit and gaze in wonder at the Academy Award that had been presented to Ms. Hattie McDaniel, which she had gifted to the College of Fine Arts,” said Phylicia Rashad, dean of the Boseman College of Fine Arts. “I am overjoyed that this Academy Award is returning to what is now the Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts at Howard University. This immense piece of history will be back in the College of Fine Arts for our students to draw inspiration from. Ms. Hattie is coming home!”
