No one really knows what happened to Hattie McDaniel’s momentous Best Supporting Actress Oscar Award, but it will be replaced by the Academy and given to Howard University.
Hattie McDaniel made history as the first Black person to win an Oscar at the 12th Academy Awards in 1940. She beat her Gone With The Wind (1939) costar Olivia de Havilland for her role as Scarlett O’Hara’s housemaid, Mammy.
In that time the Best Supporting category winners were given a plaque instead of a trophy. The iconic trophy wasn’t gifted to all categories until the 1940s. McDaniel bequeathed the award to Howard University after she tragically died from breast cancer in 1952. Another Black woman wouldn’t win an Oscar until Whoopi Goldberg in 1991.
However, the award vanished from the Howard Theater department display case sometime in the 1960s or 70s. In an article by The Washington Post, several theories were revealed about the whereabouts of the award but ultimately the investigation never worked in Howard’s favor. One popular theory is that the award was thrown into the Potomac River by students in protest due to McDaniel winning the award for playing a hurtful stereotypical role in Gone With The Wind. McDaniel was aware of the criticism for playing the role of a maid for much of her acting career, but responded that she would “rather play a maid than be one.”
In the early 2000s, a former Howard theater chairman sent a request to the Academy to send a replacement plaque, but they stated that they do not fulfill those requests after the winner’s death.
According to a statement by Howard, on October 1, 2023, the school’s Ira Aldridge Theater will be hosting the “Hattie’s Come Home” ceremony to celebrate McDaniel’s life and accomplishments. McDaniel was not only the first Black person to win an Oscar, but also one of the first Black women to be broadcast on American radio. The current Dean of the Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts Phylicia Rashad will be leading the replacement ceremony, followed by a list of events to honor the historic figure including music and theatrical performances.