Hattie McDaniel (1893 – 1952) made history as the first African-American to win an Oscar. McDaniel was born in 1893 to parents who were former slaves. She was born in the Gilded Age which was after the Reconstruction Era. The Gilded Age was a time when the country experienced rapid growth. However, African-Americans were suffering under the “Separate but Equal” segregation policy upheld and enforced by the Supreme Court. African-Americans were also disenfranchised and excluded from the political system. Booker T. Washington was at his height, segregation was the new normal, and lynching was common.
Hattie McDaniel moved to Los Angeles and worked as a maid and cook while seeking work as an actress. Many of the roles she played were stereotypical roles for black men and women for film and radio. Black actors were often cast as the slave, maid, butler, servant, or lazy bums. Their characters were often the butt of the joke or the servants who lived to serve white women and white families. She received criticism from the black community for these roles as perpetuating black stereotypes in film and radio. In 1939, her portrayal of the sassy house slave Mammy won her the Academy Award for the Best Supporting Actress in the movie Gone With The Wind. The win allowed her to be the first African-American to win an Oscar.
Ms. McDaniel could not attend the movie premiere in Georgia because the theater was segregated. Favors were called in to allow her to attend the award ceremony. At the Academy Award ceremony, she had to sit in the back at a table against the wall. The hotel her white co-stars stayed did not allow blacks, but allowed her in as a favor. The nightclub for the award celebration did not allow blacks therefore she could not celebrate with the other cast members. She continued her career playing stereotyped black roles even though she wanted to be “a credit to her race”.
When Hattie McDaniel died, she wanted to be buried in the segregated whites-only Hollywood Cemetery. She asked for a white casket, shrouded in white with white gardenia flowers in her hair under a blanket of white gardenias. Instead, she was buried in a cemetery with other black notables. The IRS claimed her estate owed taxes and ordered all her property sold. Her Oscar, once appraised as having no value, is considered to be lost.