The Troubled (Black) History of the Oscars From Hattie McDaniel’s out-of-place seat assignment to the “Do the Right Thing” snub to Denzel’s win as a crooked cop, Todd Boyd surveys the last 70 years of the Academy Awards.

From The Root. Click here to read the entire article.

When Hattie McDaniel, the first African American ever nominated for an Academy Award, arrived at the Ambassador Hotel for the 1940 ceremony, she was seated at a table on the extreme periphery of the auditorium. McDaniel had been nominated for Best Supporting Actress based on her role as Mammy in Gone With the Wind (1939). Though this seating assignment was quite insulting, such slights were not uncommon, as McDaniel had also been forced to miss the film’s Atlanta premiere due to southern Jim Crow laws. McDaniel would go on to win the Academy Award that evening in 1940, becoming the first African American to ever win the prestigious award. It would be 24 years before another African American would be declared an Oscar winner.