An Inspiring Piece of History: Hattie McDaniel’s Oscar Acceptance Speech 1939

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Mo’Nique paid homage to Hattie McDaniel in her acceptance speech last night for Best Supporting Actress, saying, “I would like to thank Miss Hattie McDaniel, for enduring what she had to so that I would not have to.” In 1939, Hattie McDaniel became the first African-American performer to win an Academy Award for her work in “Gone With the Wind.” As a native Southerner, born and bred in Atlanta, GA, I am a huge fan of “Gone With the Wind” and relish the tribute to this great actress who paved the path for African American women so long ago. 

I LOVED “Precious” and am so glad that Mo’Nique won.  No one deserved the award more than she did.  The blue dress, gardenias in her hair….all tributes to Hattie McDaniel which makes her win even more PRECIOUS.

Did you know that ome critics sthat the Academy of Motion Pictures awarded the award to Hattie McDaniel because she was excluded from the Atlanta premiere?  The Loew’s Grand Theatre on Peachtree Street in Atlanta, Georgia, was selected as the theater for the premiere of Gone with the Wind, Friday, December 15, 1939. When the date of the Atlanta premiere approached, all the black actors were barred from attending and excluded from being in the souvenir program. David Selznick had attempted to bring Hattie McDaniel, but MGM advised him not to because of Georgia’s segregationist laws, which would have required McDaniel to stay in a segregated “blacks-only” hotel and prevented her from sitting in the theater with her white peers. Clark Gable angrily threatened to boycott the Atlanta premiere unless McDaniel was allowed to attend, but McDaniel convinced him to attend anyway.

Most of Atlanta’s 300,000 citizens crowded the route of the seven-mile motorcade that carried the film’s other stars and executives from the airport to the Georgian Terrace Hotel, where they stayed.  While the Jim Crow laws kept McDaniel from the Atlanta premiere, she did attend the Hollywood debut on December 28, 1939. This time, upon Selznick’s insistence, her picture was featured prominently in the program. (It would also be included in programs for all areas outside of the South.

Louella Parsons, an American gossip columnist, wrote about that Oscar night so many years ago:

Hattie McDaniel earned that gold Oscar, by her fine performance of “Mammy” in “Gone with the Wind”. If you had seen her face when she walked up to the platform and took the gold trophy, you would have had the choke in your voice that all of us had when Hattie, hair trimmed with gardenias, face alight, and dress up to the queen’s taste, accepted the honor in one of the finest speeches ever given on the Academy floor. She put her heart right into those words and expressed not only for herself, but for every member of her race, the gratitude she felt that she had been given recognition by the Academy. Fay Bainter, with voice trembling, introduced Hattie and spoke of the happiness she felt in bestowing upon the beaming actress Hollywood’s greatest honor. Her proudest possession is the red silk petticoat that David Selznick gave her when she finished ‘Gone with the Wind”.