Paul Byrnes: Banishing racist movies

By Paul Byrnes
Updated July 5 2015 - 12:18am, first published July 4 2015 - 11:45pm
Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh),and her Mammy (Mattie McDaniel),in <i>Gone with the Wind</i>.
Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh),and her Mammy (Mattie McDaniel),in <i>Gone with the Wind</i>.

When Hattie McDaniel won the Oscar in 1940 for best supporting actor, she was the first African-American to be nominated, as well as the first to win. At the ceremony, she was seated with her date on a separate table. By themselves.  She did not attend the world premiere of Gone with the Wind – the movie for which she won the award – because segregation laws in Georgia would not allow her to join the other cast members in Atlanta. To his credit, Clark Gable threatened to boycott the premiere, but she insisted he go.