The thirteenth amendment notwithstanding, 1930s America was still a rather unfriendly place for blacks. Legally barred from attending the same schools, and separated by society just about everywhere else, their one common outlet — entertainment — still relegated them to stereotypical roles and not always with credit. None of that phased Hattie McDaniel much. A respected radio actress, she switched to television acting and supported herself with odd jobs before she got steady acting gigs. She was finally rewarded in the breakout film about, appropriately enough, the post-Civil War South.

On this day, February 29, in 1940, Hattie McDaniel became the first black woman awarded an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the classic Gone With the Wind. McDaniel played Mammy, an outspoken hosemaid-slash-advisor to the main character of Scarlett O’Hara.

McDaniel’s offstage person was almost the opposite of the liberated Mammy character. McDaniel was very conforming with the Jim Crow laws of the age. Barred, along with all the other black actors, from attending the film’s premiere in Atlanta, she still convinced her co-star Clark Gable to go. This, after Gable was ready to boycott the ceremonies for keeping McDaniel away. The was no surer sign of the times for blacks than the woman who would win an Academy Award for Gone With the Wind being forbidden by law to attend its premiere.