Hattie McDaniel’s greatest supporting actress Oscar in 1939 for “Gone With the Wind” is likely one of the most necessary moments in Academy Award historical past. McDaniel was the primary African American to win an Oscar, and it will be half a century earlier than one other Black girl once more received an appearing award. But the whereabouts of her award, itself, has lengthy been unknown.
Now, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has created a alternative of McDaniel’s Academy Award that it is gifting to Howard University. Upon her demise in 1952, McDaniel bequeathed her Oscar to Howard University the place it was displayed on the drama division till the late ’60s.
The movie academy, together with the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, introduced Tuesday that the alternative award will reside on the college’s Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts. The Oscar will probably be introduced in a ceremony titled “Hattie’s Come Home” on Oct 1 on the Washington D.C. college campus.
“Hattie McDaniel was a groundbreaking artist who changed the course of cinema and impacted generations of performers who followed her. We are thrilled to present a replacement of Hattie McDaniel’s Academy Award to Howard University,” stated Jacqueline Stewart, Academy Museum president, and Bill Kramer, chief government of the academy, in a joint assertion. “This momentous occasion will celebrate Hattie McDaniel’s remarkable craft and historic win.”
McDaniel’s award was a plaque, not a statuette, as all supporting appearing winners obtained from 1936 to 1942. During the twelfth Academy Awards, McDaniel was seated at a segregated desk on the far aspect of the room on the Ambassador Hotel.
“I sincerely hope I shall always be a credit to my race and to the motion picture industry,” McDaniel stated accepting the award. “My heart is too full to tell you just how I feel, and may I say thank you and God bless you.”
McDaniel died in 1952 of breast most cancers on the age of 59.
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