Lesson 19:
Hattie McDaniel

An ongoing illustrative history study
This piece originally posted 7/20/2020

(This particular entry was preceded by an In Memoriam piece on 7/18/2021,
drawn and dedicated to the legacy of Congressman John Robert Lewis.)


Prelude | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | Email

Hattie McDaniel - pen and ink, 2.5 in. x 3.5 in.

"I have been told that I have kept alive the stereotype of the Negro servant in the minds of theatre-goers. I believe my critics think the public more naïve than it actually is."

Forever associated with the role of "Mammy" in 1939's Gone With The Wind, Hattie McDaniel accepted her Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, in a segregated ballroom at a hotel with a strict no-blacks policy. While a groundbreaking achievement at the time for an actress of color, McDaniel's career (at least according to IMDB) usually entailed playing some kind of servile or submissive role --usually a maid-- 74 times.

One of McDaniel's earliest roles was in the Broadway musical Show Boat which co-starred Paul Robeson (see previous lesson/entry in this very series), but after the stock market crash of 1929, the only reliable acting opportunities were the pleasant, abiding, and safe servant roles, as befit the Hollywood stereotype of the "happy Negro." McDaniel's performance in Show Boat, however, had been sufficiently compelling to motivate --of all people-- Bing Crosby to recommend McDaniel to director David O. Selznick for his upcoming Civil War epic.

Jill Watts's 2005 biography of McDaniel, Black Ambition, White Hollywood, doesn't mince words when it describes the baked-in racism of 1940's Hollywood --and also the sense of letdown. After McDaniel's Oscar victory there had been a sense of hope among up-and-coming black actors thirsting for more substantive roles, but given the harsh and inflexible stereotypes set by the film industry, McDaniel would only ever continue to play servile roles. It can conceivably be argued that the oft-perpetuated "Mammy" stereotype --docile, safely desexualized, sassy but not TOO sassy, and content with her servitude-- became even more firmly entrenched in the culture in the wake of McDaniel's star turn.

Even McDaniel's funeral bore an asterisk --despite her wish to be buried at Hollywood Memorial Park Cemetery (now Hollywood Forever), 1952 segregation laws would not permit a black woman to be buried on that property.

Next page - Lesson 20: Shirley Chisholm


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