Hooray for Hollywood? - Higher Education: In July 2013, Cheryl Boone Isaacs, an American film marketing executive, was named president of the Academy of Motion Pictures of Arts and Sciences. She was the first African-American (and only third woman after actresses Bette Davis and Fay Kanin) to be selected to lead the organization. Several decades earlier in 1939, Hattie McDaniel became the first Black person to win an Oscar for her performance in the classic movie Gone With the Wind. Her victory was bittersweet in that her speech was prepared for her and she and her guests were forced to sit in a segregated section of the building where the event took place.
These two similar, yet distinctive, examples are representative of the complex relationship between African-Americans and the Oscars.
While McDaniel’s nomination and victory for best supporting actress was significant by any standard and commendable, it was not until a decade later in 1949 that another Black actress, Ethel Waters, was nominated for best supporting actress for her performance in the movie Pinky. Unlike McDaniel, Waters was unsuccessful in her quest to win an Academy Award. In 1954, jaw droppingly beautiful Dorothy Dandridge was the first Black woman nominated for best actress in a lead role for her performance in Carmen Jones.
