The FIRST BLACK Academy Award Winner...Hattie McDaniel [1895-1952]



"HATTIE MCDANIEL was the first black American ever to win an Academy Award. Her poignant performance in Gone With the Wind, the greatest film epic of all time, thrilled audiences around the world and remains a vivid chronicle of history and a romanticized ideal of the Old South.

At the height of Hollywood’s Golden Era Hattie was one of the best-known black actors in America. She had learned to sing and act by appearing in numerous stage productions and musical reviews in the nation’s vaudeville theatrical network. Hers was a formidable presence, and Hattie was a versatile performer. A trooper of the first rank, she was an uncomplaining, strong-minded player on the movie industry scene.

Arriving at a time when few African American women were cast in major motion pictures, Hattie was usually relegated to playing the parts of MAIDS and MAMMYS. All the same, she never failed to i infuse her characters with humor and dignity. In the process, she stood as one of the STRONGEST examples of all the composure, grace and professional skill that black Americans have contributed to this nation’s CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT.

‘I’m so proud to be a credit to my race,‘ Hattie said during the Oscar ceremony in Los Angeles in 1939. At the time, few other prominent black Americans had managed the tough ascent to the top in Hollywood. Today the words of Hattie’s Oscar acceptance speech may seem sad. but they marked an epochal turn in the late thirties; she had infused her roles with such dignity and pride as few other blacks had succeeded in doing. By her accomplishment Hattie had shown the nation that she and other black American actors merited recognition and respect.

Born in Wichita, Kansas on June 10, 1895, Hattie was an easygoing and dedicated student. Her hardworking family moved around the West in the industrial boom of the turn of the century. Hattie first got a taste of the stage, thanks to her older brother in Colorado. By the time she became a regular bit player in Hollywood films, she had spent much of her life in the theatrical community... By her early twenties, Hattie had graduated to the more established performance venues across the nation. In Chicago, New York, Baltimore, Kansas City, Denver and Philadelphia, enormous theaters offered resident nightly bills of a wide range of acts: jugglers and comedians, minstrels and jazz bands. Vaudeville was the place to go for lively stage entertainment. And in the days before TELEVISION and MOTION PICTURES, actors and actresses around the nation had few outlets in which to display their craft. For Hattie, the vaudeville circuit was a dream come true. Theatrical show places with illustrious names-the Orpheum and the Palace-were played by famous singers and hoofers, Eddie Cantor, Fannie Brice, Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson ..

Hattie distinguished herself as a reliable and innovative actress, With the addition of the new exciting MEDIUM of RADIO to the nation’s cultural fabric, she found regular work. She was one the FIRST BLACK American WOMEN to appear regularly on the radio programs, singing popular standards of the late twenties and early thirties on a number of hit shows. Hollywood soon came calling. As the industry moved from from producing silent pictures to sound extravaganzas, Hattie began working in films. From the early thirties through the fifties, she appeared in dozen of films, among them The Little Colonel [1935], Nothing Sacred [1937], and the most romantic Hollywood epic of all time, Gone with the Wind [1939].

With her clear and appealing persona, Hattie became a favorite of film directors and producers... Although she was often cast as a sullen maid or a kerchief-wearing Mammy, she worked hard to prevent her stereotypical characters from becoming completely degrading to black Americans. Like fellow actors and performers ETHEL WATERS, BILL ROBINSON, EDDIE ROCHESTER and others who were offered only the roles of MAIDS, PORTERS, CHAUFFEURS, and STABLE HANDS, Hattie often refused to act the more egregiously racist scenes that some filmmakers wanted during this era. Nevertheless, throughout her long career, she sometimes caught criticism fro members of the black political community. Hattie responded by saying she understood their concerns, but that she had family members to support. Furthermore, she believed that she abide by her own RULES of what roles and scenes were appropriate. With strong faith in herself, Hattie worked consistently and usually graced her two-dimensional characters with dignity and humor....

In the years following...Hattie continued to play maids and chaperones to leading white actresses. By the late forties, however, she was beginning to be increasingly troubled by these roles, and she turned to work in radio shows and in other theatrical arenas. When Hattie died unexpectedly from a heart attack in 1952, she had just completed a television series called Beulah and was taking fewer and fewer parts, content at last to begin enjoying some of the fruits of all her years of hard work...

Hattie left a LEGACY OF EXCELLENT AND DEDICATION that remains a high standard for all American actors."


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Excerpts from “Fifty Black Women Who Changed America”

Alexander, Amy “Fifty Black Women Who Changed America” New Jersey: Birch Lane Press, 1999:69