The Oscar Goes To... Hattie McDaniel (1893-1952)
- jacquelinehamilton6
- Apr 3, 2021
- 5 min read
Updated: May 10, 2021
The daughter of former slaves, Hattie McDaniel, made history when she became the first African-American woman to win an Oscar for controversial roles as "Mammy" in the 1939 film Gone With The Wind. That night at the Oscar was suppose the night McDaniel's achievements were celebrated among her co-stars. Still, for Hattie McDaniel, she could not accept her Oscar for "Best Supporting Actress" because Oscar's ceremony prohibited African-Americans. Like her co-star Butterfly McQueen both women could not attend the Oscars due to their race; both McQueen and McDaniel had memorable characters for the wrong reasons because each of their characters played into African-American stereotypes. Hattie McDaniel was born on June 10, 1893; she was one of 13 children in her family, and according to the Biography website, "In 1901, McDaniel and her family moved to Denver, Colorado. There she attended the 24th Street Elementary School, where she was one of only two Black students in her class. Her natural flair for singing—in church, at school, and in her home—was apparent early on and gained her popularity among her classmates." Using that same source, "In 1931, McDaniel scored her first small film role as an extra in a Hollywood musical. Then in 1932, she was featured as a housekeeper in The Golden West. McDaniel continued to land parts here and there, but as roles for Black actors were hard to come by, she was again forced to take odd jobs to make ends meet." Hattie McDaniel's had dreams for Hollywood from the start; she got a little taste of fame in 1932, but she kept receiving roles as housekeepers, and she had to settle for these roles because during those times in Hollywood; African-American actresses and actors were limited to playing stereotypical roles to survive. There has been a cycle of African-American actors and actresses who have seen Hollywood as their big break and walking on the sidewalks of the rich and famous. Still, time and time again, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, those Black actors and actresses have had doors slammed in their faces. When many of these actresses and actors got their foot in the door in Hollywood, many of them had to play stereotypical roles to keep food on the table and add credits under their names. Black Winner of an Academy Award." The video gives a timeline of McDaniel's life and the setbacks she faced when she became an African-American actress during the golden age of Hollywood. The video shares excellent details about McDaniel's childhood that voiced, "At 16 she left school and spent the next decade performing across the Midwest, then she went into the show biz with her brothers, where she started performing with them when she was 10. McDaniel was not only an actress; she was a singer, and in her words, "I loved every minute of it then Tent Shows, the kerosene lights, the contagious enthusiasm of the small-town crowds." McDaniel wanted stardom; People Tv uttered, " In 1929 after the stock market crashed, she sought fame and fortune in Hollywood. Like most stars during that time, Hollywood was like the gold rush; this is where you could get your big break, and in 1935 Hattie McDaniel got that break. The video goes on to inform, " In 1935, she got her big break when she appeared alongside Shirley Temple in The Little Colonel, but in 1939, she accepted the role that would define her career, Mammy, Scarlett O' Hara's enslaved maid in Gone With The Wind." The movie became a box office hit; many in the Black community were not happy with actresses like McDaniel playing into the stereotypes that caused many setbacks in the African-American community. Many Black people boycotted the film, and there were even protests outside of the theaters in Chicago and Washington. Still, the video goes on to speak about a quote from a newspaper that communicated their disappointment of the film's depiction of Black as "Happy house servants and unthinking, helpless clods." (quote from the Pittsburgh Courier) Hattie McDaniel went on to defended her role as Mammy in her words, "I love Mammy, I understand her because my own grandmother worked on a plantation."
McDaniel was able to connect with her character on a personal level; many viewers may not have agreed with the consent of Gone With The Wind, but it earned Hattie McDaniel an Oscar, making her the first Black woman ever to win the award in 1940. Still, also she went on to win an Academy Award for best-supporting actress in the same year. Fast forward 81 years later, in 2020, Gone With The Wind received backlash; it went under review when it was introduced on the HBO streaming service, HBO Max. The streaming service ended up pulling the stereotypical iconic film from its platform; Professor Jacqueline Stewart from the University of Chicago reiterated the disclaimer from HBO Max when it came to pulling the plug on the film. Stewart vocalized the words from HBO Max, "The film's treatment of this world through a lens of nostalgia denies the horrors of Slavery as well as its legacies of racial inequality." Like her co-star, Butterfly McQueen, Hattie McDaniel, this once shining star in Hollywood could not escape racism on and off the screen. The narrator expresses, " Hattie couldn't escape racism both on-screen and off, the only roles she was given were those of maids and housekeepers including in her own 1950 sitcom Beulah. " McDaniel broke barriers that many could not imagine, but racism still followed her. The video addresses, "Meanwhile, when her white neighbors tried to evict her and other Black residents from their Los Angeles neighborhood, she sued them and won." Like most African-American Hollywood starlets during the golden age of Hollywood, Hattie McDaniel is shining stars in groundbreaking films. However, when the lights go dim, and the award ceremony is over, they were still faced with the reality that they are African-American. The People Tv Youtube video provided the tragic ending to the story of Hattie McDaniel. The information provided disclosed," In 1952, when Hattie McDaniel passed away from breast cancer, her request to be buried alongside her peers in Hollywood Cemetery was denied because of the color of her skin." Hattie McDaniel, one of the most promising stars of Hollywood, was denied from the very cemetery as many of the great stars because she was Black. Even though she was the first African-American to win an Oscar, she could not rest in peace in the same city where her acting career began. To make matters worst, after her death in 1952, her Oscar went missing when it was located at Howard University, but it disappeared, and to this day, it has never been recovered. According to ArLutherLee's The Atlanta Journal-Constitution article "80 years ago, actress Hattie McDaniel broke the color barrier at the Oscar" voiced, "After her death, McDaniel’s Oscar was given to Howard University, where it went missing during the civil rights protests of the 1960s.
To this day, the award remains missing." Hattie McDaniel paved the way for many Black actresses when it comes to roles that many may not agree with, but those roles we have seen many Black actresses become stars come back to haunt them in the end. So many of us have the mindset that Hollywood is where stars are made, and the city is full of glitter and fame. Still, when Hollywood was becoming established, those lights and stars went dim because many Black actresses and actors were forgotten and remembered for stereotypical roles.
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