In Sunday night’s Oscar show, George Clooney used his speech to congratulate Hollywood for taking on controversial progressive issues. He also mentioned with pride that the Academy gave an award to a black woman, Hattie McDaniel, in 1939.
That’s admirable, and the Academy deserves credit for its colorblind recognition of outstanding acting.
However, before Clooney wears out his arm patting people on the back, let me point out that not a single black person won an Oscar in any category for the next 24 years until Sidney Poitier earned his Best Actor award for Lillies of the Field in 1963.
After that, it was another 19 years until the next acting award went to Louis Gossett Jr. for his supporting role in An Officer and A Gentleman.
To be fair, James Baskett received an honorary award in 1948 for his work in Song of the South, and various black musicians won Best Music awards throughout the 70s and 80s.
Lately, black actors and actresses have started picking up awards every few years, which sounds about right to me, given the demographics of the United States and the frequency of significant black roles in movies.
(Source: The Black Film Center/Archive at Indiana University.)
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