Hattie McDaniels won a best supporting actress Oscar, becoming the first African-American to win an Oscar. The Academy set up a segregated table for McDaniels during the event, an article in The Grio stated.
“I sincerely hope I shall always be a credit to my race and to the motion picture industry,” McDaniels during her acceptance speech.
Her breakthrough performance was long a bittersweet one within the black community because of the servant role in a Civil War-era film that perpetuated racial stereotypes.
“Despite being a well-rounded entertainer whose skills were honed on the vaudeville circuit, McDaniel and many others like her were limited in servant roles on screens,” the Grio article states.
The wait for another actor of color to be honored turned out to be a long one. Actor Sidney Portier became the second African-American Oscar winner 27 years after McDaniels. It wasn’t until Halle Barry and Denzel Washington took both of the top acting honors in 2001 that the true color barrier began to be dismantled.
But as a Daily Beast writer noted, seventy-five years has finally brought significant change. A black director, Steve McQueen, won best picture for the first time ever with 12 Years a Slave and Gravity director Alfonso Cuaron become the first Latino to win the award for best director.
But as The Grio article points out, change remains slow in some areas despite the breakthroughs.
“Change hasn’t necessarily come as swiftly to those bestowing the honors. As in McDaniel’s day, Academy Award voters remain largely white and male.”
Source: newsone.com
Andrew Scot Bolsinger won more than two dozen press awards during his journalism career. He is a freelance writer, author and operates www.criminalu.co, which is focused on prison reform. He can reached at Andrew.Bolsinger@gmail.com
Article Appeared @http://www.blackbluedog.com/2014/03/news/remember-hattie-mcdaniel-in-gone-with-the-wind/