The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures will give Howard University a replacement of actor Hattie McDaniel’s Best Supporting Actress Academy Award.
Hattie McDaniel
For her supporting performance as “Mammy” in Gone with the Wind (1939), McDaniel was the first Black person to be nominated for and to win a competitive Academy Award. She bequeathed her award plaque to Howard upon her death in 1952.
In commemoration of this gift – to be made to the school’s Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts – Howard will host a ceremony titled “Hattie’s Come Home” at its Ira Aldridge Theater Oct. 1.
The event will include a panel discussion about McDaniel’s career, featuring Dr. Greg Carr, chair of the department of Afro-American studies; Dr. Rhea Combs, director of curatorial affairs at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery; Kevin John Goff, filmmaker, actor, and McDaniel’s great-grandnephew; Dr. Khalid Long, associate professor of theatre arts; and Phylicia Rashad, dean of the fine arts college.
“When I was a student in the College of Fine Arts at Howard University, in what was then called the Department of Drama, I would often sit and gaze in wonder at the Academy Award that had been presented to Ms. Hattie McDaniel, which she had gifted to the College of Fine Arts,” Rashad said. “I am overjoyed that this Academy Award is returning to what is now the Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts at Howard University. This immense piece of history will be back in the College of Fine Arts for our students to draw inspiration from. Ms. Hattie is coming home!”
During her career as a stage, radio, and screen performer, McDaniel appeared in approximately 300 films.
