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Academy replaces Hattie McDaniel's Oscar that's been missing for 50 years

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

Decades after it went missing, Hattie McDaniel's Academy Award is replaced.

A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:

McDaniel was awarded best supporting actress in 1940 for playing Mammy in "Gone With The Wind."

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "GONE WITH THE WIND")

HATTIE MCDANIEL: (As Mammy) No use to try and sweet talk me Miss Scarlett, I knows you ever since I put the first pair of diapers on you. I says I was going to Atlanta with you, and going I is.

MARTÍNEZ: She was the first Black person to be awarded an Oscar.

(SOUNDBITE OF 12TH ACADEMY AWARDS)

MCDANIEL: This is one of the happiest moments of my life. And I want to thank each one of you who had a part in selecting me for one of the awards. For your kindness, it has made me feel very, very humble, and I shall always hold it as a beacon for anything that I may be able to do in the future.

FADEL: Following McDaniel's death in 1952, her Oscar was donated to Howard University, but 20 years later, it went missing.

MARTÍNEZ: Last night, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gave Howard a replacement. Here's the dean of the Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts, Phylicia Rashad.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

PHYLICIA RASHAD: Today we celebrate not only the restoration of this treasure, but the power of intention.

FADEL: But the milestone Oscar win was not universally celebrated. The director of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, Jacqueline Stewart, noted that last night.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

JACQUELINE STEWART: The audience reception of the film ranged from high praise for her performance to sharp criticism for taking a role in a film that romanticizes periods of slavery and Reconstruction from a white supremacist point of view.

MARTÍNEZ: With that role, however, a daughter of formerly enslaved Americans broke a Hollywood color barrier. It would be half a century before another Black actress would follow her.

FADEL: In 1990, Whoopi Goldberg took home the Oscar for her supporting role in "Ghost."

(SOUNDBITE OF JERRY GOLDSMITH'S "GONE WITH THE WIND") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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