Hattie McDaniel Breaks Barriers at 1940 Oscars

# The Night Hollywood Held Its Breath: February 21, 1940

On February 21, 1940, something extraordinary happened in Los Angeles that would ripple through cinema history for decades to come. On this chilly winter evening, the 12th Academy Awards ceremony took place at the Coconut Grove nightclub in The Ambassador Hotel, and it was the night that *Gone with the Wind* swept through the Oscars like Sherman through Georgia.

But the real historic moment came when Hattie McDaniel won Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mammy in the epic Civil War drama. She became the first African American to win an Academy Award—a groundbreaking achievement that would stand alone for over two decades.

The circumstances surrounding her attendance that night were as dramatic as any screenplay. The Ambassador Hotel, hosting the ceremony, was segregated. David O. Selznick, the film's producer, had to petition the hotel management to allow McDaniel to attend at all. She wasn't permitted to sit with her white co-stars at their table; instead, she was seated at a small table at the back of the room against the far wall with her escort and agent.

When presenter Fay Bainter announced McDaniel's name, the actress had to navigate through the crowded room to reach the stage. In a blue gown with gardenias in her hair, she clutched a speech written on a scrap of paper. With tears streaming down her face and her voice trembling with emotion, she delivered what would become one of the most poignant acceptance speeches in Oscar history:

"Academy of Distinguished Amateurs and Motion Picture Arts and Sciences... I sincerely hope I shall always be a credit to my race and to the motion picture industry."

The moment was both triumphant and bittersweet. McDaniel had shattered a ceiling, yet she'd done so playing a character that embodied racial stereotypes—a role that drew criticism from the NAACP and other civil rights organizations. She found herself caught between two worlds: celebrated by Hollywood yet criticized by parts of her own community who felt she perpetuated demeaning caricatures.

That same night, *Gone with the Wind* won eight competitive Academy Awards out of thirteen nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director for Victor Fleming, and Best Actress for Vivien Leigh. It was a coronation befitting what would become one of cinema's most enduring (and controversial) classics.

The 1940 ceremony was also notable for being the first to receive complete national radio coverage, meaning McDaniel's historic win was broadcast to millions of Americans sitting in their living rooms coast to coast—a powerful moment during an era when most theaters were still segregated and interracial casting was virtually nonexistent.

McDaniel would never receive another Oscar nomination, and it would be 24 years before another African American actor—Sidney Poitier—would win an Academy Award. When McDaniel died in 1952, she requested burial at Hollywood Cemetery (now Hollywood Forever), but her wish was denied due to the cemetery's whites-only policy. She was finally honored there with a cenotaph in 1999.

February 21, 1940, represents both how far cinema had come and how far it still had to go—a single evening that captured Hollywood's capacity for both progress and prejudice, artistry and injustice, all wrapped up in the glittering spectacle of Oscar night.

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