By Helen BezunehSpecial to the AFRO
On the Oscars ceremony in 1940, African-American actress Hattie McDaniel was seated at a segregated desk on the far aspect of the room on the Ambassador Resort. An ideal distance from the desk the place her fellow “Gone With the Wind” forged members sat collectively. The host lodge had a agency no-Blacks coverage and David O. Selznick, producer of her featured movie, needed to make a particular name to even let McDaniel enter the constructing.
Nonetheless, McDaniel sat poised in a turquoise robe adorned in glowing rhinestones, her hair ornamented with white gardenias, when the announcer for the very best supporting actress award approached the stage and at last revealed the winner: Hattie McDaniel. In a single fell swoop, she formally grew to become the primary African American to win an Oscar for her function as “Mammy,” a home slave for a rich White household, in “Gone With the Wind.”
“Academy of Movement Image Arts and Science, fellow members of the movement image business and honored friends, this is among the happiest moments of my life,” a teary-eyed McDaniel mentioned throughout her acceptance speech. “I sincerely hope I shall at all times be a credit score to my race and to the movement image business. My coronary heart is just too full to let you know simply how I really feel.”
As a daughter to previously enslaved dad and mom, McDaniel had an intimate understanding of the hardships confronted by African People on the time. For her, the Oscar was not merely a private achievement –– she noticed it as a big victory for the Black American neighborhood as a complete.
Her function in “Gone With the Wind,” nevertheless, was not with out controversy.
NAACP government secretary Walter White and different civil rights leaders condemned McDaniel for taking over a task that bolstered stereotypes of African People as subservient and White-appeasing. McDaniel, nevertheless, held a special viewpoint, contemplating the inclusion of Black performers in main movies a victory in itself.
“She finally ends up defending herself for taking that function, which many Black critics felt was disparaging – and it’s,” Jill Watts, writer of “Hattie McDaniel: Black Ambition, White Hollywood” instructed the AFRO. “However she defends herself not by saying ‘I learn the guide and turned the Mammy determine into this stunning portrait.’ What she says is, ‘after I performed it, I considered folks like Sojourner Reality, Harriet Tubman and my grandmother.’ She bases that function on the Black expertise – at the very least that’s what she says.”
Although White held a special perspective, Watts argues that McDaniel was an activist in her personal approach.
“She was the one which had essentially the most abhorrent racial slur that we are able to consider faraway from the script,” mentioned Watts. “She refused to say that. It was within the script till the day she shot that scene – then it was gone after she appeared within the scene. So that you see her form of actually constrained, however you additionally see her behind the scenes pushing right here and pushing there.”
Born in Kansas in 1893, McDaniel was the thirteenth baby of her dad and mom, her father being a Civil Battle veteran and her mom a home employee. The household finally moved to Denver, Colo., the place McDaniel was one in all solely two black college students in her elementary college class.
McDaniel’s mom would carry her alongside to work in white houses, the place the eventual Oscar winner would witness her mom toil for measly earnings. It was throughout these experiences that McDaniel realized that she needed to carve out a special future for herself.
In highschool, she began singing, dancing and performing skits together with her siblings in minstrel reveals. She would finally get a task in a street tour of the musical Present Boat, jumpstarting her skilled performing profession.
In keeping with Watts, McDaniel was a longshot for the function of Mammy in “Gone With the Wind.” Quite a few Black actresses on the time, together with Louise Beavers, vied for the coveted function, intensifying the competitors.
“The dominant feeling was that Hattie McDaniel wasn’t severe sufficient to play that function,” mentioned Watts. “There was a whole lot of resistance inside the studio heads to forged her in that function as a result of her performances had been so daring. She’s so assertive in these roles and she or he makes these roles her personal. She’s learn by Hollywood as a comedic actress that you simply couldn’t presumably take critically – a powerful Black girl. If you concentrate on that, ‘she’s too sturdy for the function’ is what they’re mainly saying.”
With Selznick in the end deciding to go along with McDaniel, the actress all of the sudden needed to face the tough actuality of navigating Hollywood’s movement image business. McDaniel, nevertheless, knew what to anticipate –– segregated dressing rooms, informal racism from the manufacturing staff and forged and an total tough time.
Although the a number of Black performers within the film knew they might not do a lot about this actuality, they got here collectively to protest the studio’s segregated loos and efficiently received them desegregated.
McDaniel’s Oscar win was a momentous improvement in her private life and the broader African American expertise.
“It’s monumental as a result of on the time, the Academy Awards had been happening for 11 years and no Black particular person had ever been nominated, but alone gained,” Reshonda Tate, author, journalist and writer of upcoming guide “The Queen of Sugar Hill: A Novel of Hattie McDaniel,” instructed the AFRO. “Nor had any Black particular person been allowed within the ceremony.”
“She opened doorways,” Tate continued. “Hattie McDaniel believed in combating from the within – she had a seat on the desk. We’re used to these activists who’re vocal, however she was a quiet activist who had a seat on the desk and tried to make change that approach whereas doing what she cherished.”
Tate determined to jot down the novel after studying about McDaniel’s outstanding life –– nevertheless, as a toddler, even Tate skilled a distaste for the function of Mammy.
“My grandmother was a fan of ‘Gone With the Wind,’ and I keep in mind the primary time watching it, she cherished it and I used to be mortified,” mentioned Tate. “I used to be simply disgusted with the character of Mammy. I didn’t like the way in which she overacted, I didn’t like the truth that she was a maid.”
“My grandmother requested why I used to be so disgusted, and I instructed her that,” she continued. “She mentioned, ‘effectively, I’m a maid. Are you disgusted with me?’ And I mentioned, ‘effectively, no.’ She went on to clarify to me that Hattie McDaniel was taking part in the one function she was allowed. My grandmother mentioned, ‘I receives a commission to be a maid, Hattie McDaniel will get paid to play a maid.’ It was then that I opened my eyes.”
Kevin John Goff, Hattie McDaniel’s great-grandnephew, spoke with the AFRO concerning the significance of McDaniel’s historic win and her life after the Oscar.
“She had seen a whole lot of heartache, a whole lot of dying, a whole lot of discrimination, so she wasn’t working on a degree taking part in subject, however she was brave and hardworking. Her dad and mom had been hardworking, so she received that from them,” mentioned Goff. “When she gained the Oscar, I’m positive lots of people had been shocked, Black, White or no matter. She checked out it as a prideful factor, as an accomplishment, one thing that had by no means been accomplished at that time.”
“She hoped it was going to open up doorways for her in large methods, and it did a bit bit, however her profession didn’t go upward,” he continued. “However she knew that it could in all probability assist different Black performers down the street, and that was her greatest hope.”
Whereas McDaniel secured a task for “In This Our Life” shortly after her Oscar win, she discovered herself as soon as once more forged as a maid.
“In some methods it’s a classical Hollywood story,” mentioned Watts. “There’s the Oscar curse the place after you win the Oscar, it’s actually arduous to regain that momentum and proceed some form of climb in your profession. You’ll be able to think about she’s coping with that actuality on high of being a Black girl in Hollywood.”
With McDaniel with the ability to become profitable on “Gone With the Wind” and command extra pay for her future roles, she bought a home in an space of Los Angeles referred to as the West Adams district.
“She’s a part of this motion of Black performers shopping for these actually stunning, previous cash mansions, and so they’re integrating this neighborhood,” mentioned Watts. “She does that and she or he faces pushback from the White residents who truly take her to court docket to try to push her out of her house as a result of they need West Adams to stay White. She makes that battle towards that residential segregation in Los Angeles.”
“Ultimately, the lawsuit that she fights is determined in her favor, and that units a precedent for a Supreme Court docket resolution in a while to outlaw restricted covenants in residential segregation in the US,” she continued. “No person offers her credit score for that.”
As time carries McDaniel into the pages of historical past, Goff is working arduous to make sure that folks keep in mind his distinguished great-grandaunt.
“My father, who Hattie used to babysit, this was initially his journey,” Goff instructed the AFRO. “After I received off the aircraft after I determined to maneuver again to California, I consider I used to be round 23-years-old, the very first thing my father mentioned to me was, ‘do you wish to have the accountability of carrying on the household legacy sooner or later?’ And I mentioned completely. When he handed away in 2012, that’s after I knew I used to be going to honor that query that he requested me years earlier than about taking over that accountability.”
Goff is at present engaged on his guide “Hattie McDaniel: A Reflective Life,” which can discover McDaniel’s private experiences.
“Some folks know among the elements of her story and her life, however they don’t actually know her as a lady, as an individual,” mentioned Goff. “The thing of the guide is to point out extra of the human aspect away from the display, her ideas, what she thought of life, what she thought of Hollywood. In a few of her quotes you may see the place her thoughts is.”
“Then I share a few of my views on her and the household – pictures and various things of that nature,” he continued. “I share issues which can be nonetheless taking place right now and have been taking place for the previous few years as a result of her expertise was so large, though she didn’t get to make use of it to its fullest. It’s an added layer to point out, look, this was an actual particular person, she had emotions, she had ideas, she had her ethical floor, she had compassion and people sorts of issues. I wish to paint a wider image of her.”
Along with her upcoming novel, Tate additionally hopes to light up the generally misunderstood elements of McDaniel’s life –– particularly contemplating the assault on “Gone With the Wind” in 2020, when HBO Max briefly eliminated the movie from its streaming service after receiving complaints of its racial stereotypes.
“That was disheartening to me as a result of her legacy was that she hoped to at all times be a credit score to her race,” mentioned Tate. “A part of what I’m doing with this guide is I’m hoping to shed a brand new gentle on Hattie McDaniel to see that she was certainly a credit score to our race. There are such a lot of different areas that she made a distinction in that individuals don’t even find out about. I’m excited to carry these to the forefront as effectively.”
As of this yr, solely ten Black girls have secured an Oscar, with 9 of them triumphing in the very best supporting actress class, and Halle Berry standing as the only real Black girl to have ever gained the very best actress accolade.
“In gentle of the Oscar nominations that lately got here out, I’m excited for Danielle Brooks and Da’Vine Pleasure, who occur to be nominated in the identical class,” mentioned Tate. “However on the identical time, it’s unhappy that right here we’re, ninety-plus years later after the primary Academy Awards, and we’re solely at 9 Black girls who’ve gained Finest Supporting Actress. That tells you that whereas we now have made some progress, there’s a lot extra progress that must be made.”
