On 29 February 1940, Black actor Hattie McDaniel was not allowed to sit with her white co-stars during the 12th Academy Awards ceremony.
McDaniel won Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the film Gone with the Wind and in doing so became the first African American to receive an Academy Award. However, while her white co-stars sat at a table near the main stage, she was only allowed to sit at the back of the room.
The venue hosting the ceremony, the Cocoanut Grove nightclub at The Ambassador Hotel, had a strict policy of refusing any admission to Black people. McDaniel was only even granted entry after the producer, David Selznick, called in a special favour with hotel management.
McDaniel, who was born to two parents who had been enslaved, stated in her acceptance speech:
“I shall always hold it as a beacon for anything I may be able to do in the future. I sincerely hope that I shall always be a credit to my race and the motion picture industry.”
Over her career, McDaniel appeared in hundreds of films, mostly uncredited. Of her 94 credited roles on the Internet Movie Database, 74 of them were playing domestic workers, often as a stereotypical “Mammy” character.
Before she died, aged just 57, her final wish was to be buried in the Hollywood Cemetery, but this was not permitted due to it not admitting Black people.
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