Hattie McDaniel, died October 26, 1952.
She was the first African American to be nominated and win an Oscar.

Winner of the 1940 Oscar for her portrayal of Mammy in Gone With the Wind.  She appeared in over 300 films, but rarely credited for her roles. As well as a ground breaking actor, McDaniel was a fierce and vocal civil rights advocate.   

Hattie played a pivotal role in fighting segregated housing in Los Angeles – and won a landmark decision in the Superior Court. She organized Saturday workshops to strategize against a lawsuit denying her and other people of color the right to buy property in the affluent Sugar Hill neighborhood. She gathered 250 sympathizers who accompanied her to court. Her case set a precedent that would later help the U.S. Supreme Court rule that race-based restrictive housing covenants were unconstitutional. About Hattie McDaniel

Hattie McDaniel
Part of the long running Black Heritage series
Issued by the USPS in 2006
Designer: Ethel Kessler

“Based on a 1941 photograph, the stamp features a portrait of McDaniel by Tim O’Brien of Brooklyn, New York.
The image portrays McDaniel in the dress she wore on February 29, 1940, when she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.”
39c Hattie McDaniel single | National Postal Museum

 

For McDaniel, life was a tightrope walk of trying to satisfy herself, her prejudiced bosses, and the representation-starved Black community—attempting to be all things to all people.
Jill Watts,  Hattie McDaniel: Black Ambition, White Hollywood

It’s impossible to write up McDaniel’s life in a paragraph or two. It feels like I’d be doing a great disservice to this truly amazing person. Vanity Fair published a deep dive into her legacy as an actress and civil rights champion in 2021. The  Hadley Hall Meares article is behind a paywall, but the first article is free.