The First Black Oscar Winner

On this day, when we remember a leader of the Civil Rights movement, it pays to take note of the first major barrier that African-Americans broke down in 1939. Hattie McDaniel won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in "Gone With the Wind," an epic film about the fall of the Old South and the struggle of one family in Georgia for survival during Reconstruction. Many of the Civil Rights leaders of today wish that "Gone With the Wind" had never been made and they marvel at the complicity of several black actors and actresses in the making of such a film. The movie depicts owners with kindly attitudes towards slaves and portrays three slaves out of a full plantation who choose to stay with their owners after the war. Historically, it is true that some slaves stayed with their former owners, although it is not PC to admit it. When asked why she played a number of roles as a maid, Hattie McDaniel retorted, "I'd rather play a maid than be one."
"Gone With the Wind" was a pioneering film in another way. Although not the first epic about the Civil War - that distinction belongs to "The Birth of a Nation," a silent film made in 1915 - "Gone With the Wind" was one of the first films in which all of the actors and actresses playing black characters were actually black people - not white people in black face. The answer to the question about the performers' complicity in playing slaves and carpetbaggers is simple. "Gone With the Wind" provided employment for a host of black actors and actresses near the end of the Great Depression. Rest assured, if you were to ask any of the performers at the time, they all would express their sincere appreciation for a movie with so many roles for them. Hattie McDaniel, Butterfly McQueen, (as the unforgettable Prissy) and the actors who played Pork, Uncle Peter, and Big Sam, as well as the extras playing field hands and carpetbaggers all benefitted materially from the making of this movie.
The controversy surrounding "Gone With the Wind," which stresses the indignity of the portrayals of black characters, would place the hypothetical dignity of the community above the material financial benefits for real members of the community. Fitting as it is to note, those actors and actresses who chose the indignity of playing slaves in order to gain employment showed exactly the same spirit as Scarlett did when she chose repeatedly to profit at the cost of her dignity. Scarlett's vow could speak for them all, "I'll never be hungry again!"