Back in the days when Hollywood allotted very few major roles to African-Americans, Hattie McDaniel appeared in more than 300 films. In 1940, she won the best supporting actress award for her role as Mammy in the film Gone with the Wind. This achievement made her the first African-American to win an Academy Award and helped her to earn the reputation as the most successful black movie actress of her time.
Unfortunately, most of McDaniel’s accomplishments were criticized by progressives in the black community. In almost every film she appeared in, McDaniel played the role of a maid or cook, a fact that did not go unnoticed. It was in 1935 that McDaniel first drew criticism for her work in The Little Colonel. Many members of the black community felt that her role as the happy black servant reinforced stereotypes that black people had been content with slavery. Five years later the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) criticized McDaniel for her role as Mammy, even though many journalists in the black press viewed her work in Gone with the Wind positively.
In the late 1940s, Walter White, the executive secretary of the NAACP, began an intense crusade to diversify the roles played by black people in Hollywood movies. He openly attacked any role that “smacked of Uncle Tomism, or Mammyism” and singled out McDaniel in particular. She stood up to her opponents and responded, “Hell, I’d rather play a maid than be one,” a quote that became forever linked to the actress.
McDaniel firmly believed that actors ought to be allowed to choose any role they wanted. Born to a family of entertainers in 1895, she dropped out of high school to become a minstrel performer. Before making her film debut in 1931, the actress also dabbled in radio, worked in a club, and took a variety of menial jobs to support herself during the Depression. Having lived through tough times, McDaniel had no intention of throwing it all away.
Toward the end of her life, Hattie McDaniel won the starring role in The Beulah Show. At the height of its success in 1950, this program attracted a multiracial audience of 20 million Americans each night. Although she was once again playing the role of a maid, McDaniel generally received approval from the NAACP and the Urban League for her comedic work as Beulah. Playing this character allowed McDaniel to prove that black people could perform comedic roles without degradation. McDaniel was so committed to this show that she continued to work on it following a heart attack she suffered in 1951. Sadly, she succumbed to breast cancer one year later, leaving behind a rich legacy in Hollywood.
Sources: [No author], Contemporary Black Biography (Detroit: Gale Research Inc., 1993); A1 Young, “I’d Rather Play a Maid than Be One,” The New York Times, October 15, 1989, Section 7, p. 13.
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