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Hattie McDaniel became the first Black Oscar winner in 1940 for her portrayal of a slave named Mammy in the 1939 film Gone With the Wind. Sadly though, when she attended the Academy Awards ceremony at the Cocoanut Grove nightclub in The Ambassador Hotel, she wasn’t even allowed to sit with her co-stars.
McDaniel arrived at the show with an escort and her agent, William Meiklejohn, who was white. She was even dressed in a rhinestone-studded gown with white gardenias in her hair, but this still didn’t qualify her to sit at the Gone With the Wind table. Instead, she was escorted to a small table in a back room that was being used to store the Oscar award trophys.
For the full story, visit Blackhistory.com.
