Hattie McDaniel opened doors for African-Americans in films and marked the academy’s history by winning the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as “Mammy”, a maid and former slave in the film “Gone With the Wind”.
Though she represented the struggle for equality, her life was full of injustices and difficult moments. She wasn’t allowed to attend the “Gone With the Wind” premiere and in the ceremony, she wasn’t allowed to sit on the same table as the other cast members.
Hattie was rejected by white people and misunderstood by black people who didn’t understand why she had accepted a role in which Hollywood stereotyped African-Americans.
Who was Hattie?
The youngest of thirteen children of a former slave couple born in Kansas in 1839. It didn’t take her long to get on stage to start following her mother’s footsteps in the gospel genre.
Although she didn’t know what would come in her future, she was sure that she didn’t want to follow the path of servitude to which the women of her race seemed to belong.
The Wall Street Crash of 1929 came and she had to leave that stage, but it wouldn’t be for many time before she was on a new one when the Suburban Inn hotel asked for someone to clean the women’s restrooms, Hattie took the job.
One night when the artists had already left, the manager asked for a volunteer to go on stage and she took that opportunity, she became the star of the main show for two years, leaving behind the cleaning of the restrooms.
Not everything was hunky-dory
African-American people already had roles in several movies, but they were not credited and always had roles as chauffeurs, waiters, or servants.
In 1932 she started acting in several film productions, always as a maid in small roles, but this was not going to let her give up and show people what she was capable of achieving, eight years later she was awarded an Oscar.
However, not everything was hunky-dory. Around 300,000 people went to Atlanta for the “Gone With the Wind” premiere, which during three days this was celebrated, limousines, filled the city and celebrities were in attendance, even a costume party was held, sadly, Hattie didn’t receive any invitation. The Jim Crow Law enforced segregation of black people in public spaces.
Hattie was the first black woman to attend the academy awards as a guest, not as a servant; producer David O. Selznick had to ask permission so Hattie could attend and there she was, sitting alone at a small table away from the other celebrities.
Her legacy
In 1952 she was diagnosed with a breast tumor and passed away at the age of 57. In her will, she asked for two things, to be buried in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery and that her oscar was given to Howard University, however, once again, the inequality that this actress experienced was present, the cemetery did not accept black people even if they were too famous.
Little is known about her Oscar. It is said that it ended up in a river or in a basement, but this statuette was a watershed for future black actors.
44 years later, Sidney Poitier won an Oscar for the “The lilies of the field” and 80 years after Hattie won an Oscar, just another seven black actresses had won an Oscar: Whoopi Goldberg, Halle Berry, Viola Davis, Lupita Nyong’o, Jennifer Hudson, Octavia Spencer, and Mo’Nique, who thanked Hattie for enduring all that she had to endure so that Mo’Nique wouldn’t have to.