1939 – Hattie McDaniel (WINNER)
Gone With the Wind
Hattie McDaniel was the first black woman to ever win an Oscar. We all know how monumental and historic her win was. It was deserved and it was important for more than just what it was. It was official recognition of not only a black person, but a black woman, and in 1939, that was significant. Such a recognition would have been important in any kind of an event, but in something that was so highly visible as the Academy Awards, it was phenomenal.
But just to put it into a little perspective, here are a few Academy Award facts. McDaniel was the first black person, man or woman, who was ever even nominated for an acting Oscar. After her, the next black actor or actress to earn a nomination was ten years later in 1949, when Ethel Waters was nominated for a supporting role in the movie Pinky. The next black actor to actually win an Oscar was fifteen years after that in 1963, when Sidney Poitier won for Lilies of the Field. Hattie’s win was a start, but the battle for equal representation was only beginning.
In Gone With the Wind, she played Mammy, a slave on the O’Hara cotton plantation. She served as nurse to the O’Hara women for several generations, and as the “head woman” of the plantation. She is gruff but well-meaning, and the way McDaniel played her, she is incredibly likeable nonetheless. It is clear that though she is a slave, she cares deeply for the family she serves. After the Civil War is over, she continues on as Scarlet and Rhett’s servant, though I assume she now gets paid for her labors.
Honestly, there wasn’t much to the role, but I’m still glad she won. The significance of her nomination and her win outweighed the fact that the role itself might not have been worthy of all the attention, especially when objectively compared to the rest of the women nominated for Best Supporting Actress that year. There was one scene in particular, in which McDaniel got to flex her acting chops a bit. When Rhett and Scarlett’s daughter is killed in a horse-riding accident, the bitter tears she shed were real and heart-felt. McDaniel was really beautiful in that moment, and I suspect that was the scene that earned her the Oscar.