Article: Hattie McDaniel: "I'd rather play a maid than be one," Hattie McDaniel once announced to a divided America. But as a new biography reveals, there was nothing make-believe about the racism she endured. Here, an exclusive sneak peek.(PRE view)

Among the many trailblazers she acknowledged, there was one name missing from Halle Berry's acceptance speech as the first African American to win a Best Actress Oscar: Hattie McDaniel. In 1940 this actress from Wichita, Kansas, won Best Supporting Actress--the first Oscar of any type awarded to an African American--for her performance in Gone with the Wind as Mammy, the head woman of the Tara plantation and the nagging conscience of that self-centered white girl, Scarlett O'Hara. It's hard to remember today that Gone with the Wind was a battleground between those who desired a romantic view of America's bloodiest conflict and others who feared the film would perpetuate ...

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