Academy and Museum to Gift Replacement Oscar Statuette to Howard University in Honor of Hattie McDaniel’s Legacy

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures have announced they will be gifting a replacement of Hattie McDaniel’s historic best supporting actress Oscar to Howard University in Washington, D.C. McDaniel was the first Black person to win an Oscar for her supporting performance as Mammy in the 1939 classic “Gone with the Wind.”

CEO Bill Kramer and the director and president of the Academy Museum, Jacqueline Stewart, praised McDaniel as a “groundbreaking artist who changed the course of cinema and impacted generations of performers who followed her.” At the segregated 12th Academy Awards ceremony in 1940 at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, McDaniel and her guest sat separately from the other nominees.

At the time, the Academy presented McDaniel with a plaque rather than a statuette, as was the Academy’s tradition from 1936 to 1942. Unfortunately, the original award went missing from Howard University’s collection. The Academy and the Museum have now decided to replace the award in order to honor McDaniel’s legacy.

The Academy and the Museum have stated that they are “honored to recognize Hattie McDaniel’s groundbreaking achievement with a replacement Oscar statuette.” They hope that the replacement will “serve as a reminder of her legacy and the power of representation in the motion picture industry.”

The replacement Oscar statuette will be presented to Howard University in the near future. It is a fitting tribute to McDaniel, who was the first Black person to win an Oscar and whose legacy has inspired generations of performers.