./ — 2 years ago(May 31, 2023 10:39 AM)

This is a great article about the struggles that Hattie McDaniel faced in Hollywood, despite being given one of its highest honors. She wasn't allowed to attend the "Gone With The Wind" premiere, at the Oscar's ceremony where she received her Academy Award she had to sit far away from her co-stars, and when she died she was denied her last wish to be buried at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, because it was whites only at the time.
https://abc7.com/faceism-hattie-mcdaniel-gone-with-the-wind-first-black-woman-to-win-oscar/12868792/
Her performance as "Mammy" in the epic historical romance film "Gone with the Wind" was one of the most memorable roles in history. But it did very little to garner the respect she craved.
In fact, it brought enormous criticism from the African American community.
"Hattie McDaniel is in a really tough position because she's an aspiring actress in the 1930s and the 1940s, and let's be frank, Hollywood was not all that amenable to opening up opportunities for African Americans in prominent roles in the 1930s and '40s," said Tyrone Howard, a professor of education in the School of Education & Information Studies at UCLA.
Much like life itself, Hollywood was an unfair world.
The Black stereotype was all that was offered.
McDaniel is famously quoted as saying, "I would rather make $700 a week playing a maid than earn $7 a day being one."
McDaniel was a maid, and bathroom attendant, before she got her big break.
"It's complex," said Howard. "The NAACP at the time spoke out against her and that depiction and that role, but I think that you don't see a Halle Berry today. I don't think you see a lot of the other Black women actresses who are doing the amazing works that they do today without having a Hattie Daniel who helped to blaze trails for her."
Not only was McDaniel talented but lost in her story was her kindness.
She donated so much of her wealth back to the Black community, while at the same time, fighting severe prejudice.
At the "Gone with the Wind" world premiere in Atlanta, hundreds of thousands came out to greet the stars, but the Black cast members, including McDaniel, were forbidden from taking part.
Even the Oscars award show at the Ambassador Hotel was whites only. McDaniel had to get special permission to attend.
Whisked in through a side door and forced to sit at a table far away from her fellow cast members - never an equal.
Her final wish was to be buried at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery with all the other stars. However, that was denied. At the time, it was whites only.