The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences made an announcement on Tuesday that it will be presenting a replacement for Hattie McDaniel’s missing Academy Award to Howard University. McDaniel, who starred in “Gone With the Wind,” became the first Black person to be nominated for and win an Academy Award in 1940 for her supporting role as “Mammy.”
During the 12th Academy Awards ceremony, McDaniel and her guest were seated separately from the film’s other nominees due to segregation. Instead of receiving a traditional Oscar statuette, McDaniel was given a plaque, which was the norm for supporting performance winners between 1936 and 1942. McDaniel’s award holds significant historical value as it would take another 51 years before another Black woman would win an acting Oscar.
After McDaniel passed away in 1952, she bequeathed her Academy Award to Howard University. The award was displayed at the university’s drama department until the late 1960s when it went missing.
Jacqueline Stewart, the director and president of the Academy Museum, and Academy CEO Bill Kramer released a statement expressing their excitement to present a replacement of Hattie McDaniel’s Academy Award to Howard University. They acknowledged McDaniel’s impact on cinema and the generations of performers who followed her, emphasizing her groundbreaking artistry. The new Oscar statuette will be unveiled at a special celebration honoring McDaniel’s life and legacy at Howard University’s Ira Aldridge Theater in Washington, D.C. on October 1.
The celebration, aptly named “Hattie’s Come Home,” will feature opening remarks by Phylicia Rashad, the dean of Howard University’s Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts. It will also include a performance of a medley of songs by current students and faculty of the college, as well as an excerpt from “Boulevard of Bold Dreams,” a piece by Los Angeles playwright-filmmaker LaDarrion Williams.
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