User:Kirstenb2/Hattie McDaniel

1940 Academy Awards
Despite her big success in Gone With the Wind, Hattie McDaniel was not allowed to sit alongside her costars at the 12th annual Academy Awards ceremony. She, along with her agent, were forced to sit at a table in the back that was being used to store the Oscar award trophies. The discrimination continued after the award ceremony as well as her white costars went to a "no-blacks" club, where McDaniel was also denied entry. Another black woman did not win an Oscar again for 50 years, with Whoopi Goldberg winning Best Supporting Actress for her role in Ghost. Weeks prior to McDaniel winning her Oscar, there was even more controversy. David Selznick, the producer of Gone With the Wind, omitted the faces of all the black actors on the posters advertising the movie in the South. None of the black cast members, including Hattie McDaniel, were even allowed to attend the premier for the movie.