AMPAS
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Academy Museum announced today that they have awarded a replacement for Hattie McDaniel’s Best Supporting Actress Oscar for 1939’s “Gone With the Wind” to the Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts will donate to Howard University.
The school will host a ceremony entitled “Hattie’s Come Home” on October 1 at the Ira Aldridge Theater in Washington, DC.
“Hattie McDaniel was a groundbreaking artist who changed the course of cinema and influenced generations of artists who followed her. We are pleased to present Howard University with a replacement for the Hattie McDaniel Academy Award,” Academy Museum Director and President Jacqueline Stewart and Academy CEO Bill Kramer said in a statement. “This momentous occasion will celebrate Hattie McDaniel’s remarkable skills and historic victory.”
McDaniel did not receive a statuette but a plaque, as was customary from 1936 to 1942 to support winners of performances. McDaniel bequeathed her Oscar to Howard University after her death in 1952, and the award was displayed in the university’s drama department until the late 1960s. His whereabouts are unknown today.
McDaniel’s award stands out in the Academy’s history because it would be 51 years before another black woman would win an acting Oscar, as Whoopi Goldberg won the supporting actor award for “Ghost” in 1990.
“When I was a student at Howard University’s College of Fine Arts, then the theater department, I often sat and gazed in wonder at the Oscar that had been awarded to Ms. Hattie McDaniel. “I had given it to the College of Fine Arts.” said Phylicia Rashad, dean of the Boseman College of Fine Arts. “I am thrilled that this Oscar is returning to what is now the Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts at Howard University. This immense piece of history will be on display again at the School of Fine Arts for our students to be inspired by. Mrs. Hattie is coming home!”