Hattie McDaniel

[Hattie McDaniel] “Fellow members of the motion picture industry and honored guests, this is one of the happiest moments in my life.” Hattie McDaniel is the first African American to win an Oscar, but it wasn’t the only barrier she broke. She was the first Black woman to sing on the radio – on station KOA in Denver, in 1925. McDaniel grew up in Denver and started performing at East High School, dropping out to join her brother’s traveling minstrel show, and later she got to Hollywood, into the motion picture industry, and the role of Mammy in “Gone With the Wind.” As a Black woman, McDaniel was barred from the premiere in Atlanta in 1939. At the Oscars, she was seated separately from her costars. But there were more roles for her to play, and more “firsts” in her career. And today, Hattie McDaniel has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: one for motion pictures, the other for radio.

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