The 12th Academy Awards were held on the evening of 29 February 1940 at the Cocoanut Grove nightclub in Los Angeles' Ambassador Hotel. "Gone with the Wind" swept the night. Hattie McDaniel, a veteran singer, radio performer and actress, won Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mammy, the head house slave at Tara. She was the first Black performer to win an Oscar. That triumph sat awkwardly beside the segregation she faced both in the room and at the film's premiere.
McDaniel arrived at the Cocoanut Grove with white gardenias in her hair. The venue normally barred Black guests, and she was allowed in only as a special case. She and her escort sat at a small table at the side of the room, away from the film's white stars. Weeks earlier she had been kept away from the film's Atlanta premiere because of the segregation laws in Georgia.
When her name was called, McDaniel gave a short, emotional speech. She said she hoped she would always be a credit to her race and to the motion picture industry. Some Black critics of the time objected to the servant roles she was usually given. She famously answered that she would rather play a maid than be one.
It would be 24 years before another Black performer, Sidney Poitier, won an acting Oscar. McDaniel's award became one of the most discussed moments in the Academy's history, for what it achieved and for what it revealed.
Key people: Hattie McDaniel