In 1940, Hattie McDaniel made history as the first African American to win an Academy Award. She received the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as 'Mammy' in the epic 'Gone with the Wind.' Despite her monumental win, the ceremony was a stark reminder of the racial segregation of the era; McDaniel was not allowed to sit with her white co-stars at the 'Gone with the Wind' table and was instead seated at a small table against a far wall. Furthermore, she had been barred from attending the film's premiere in Atlanta due to Jim Crow laws. Her win was a breakthrough for Black performers in Hollywood, yet it took another 24 years before Sidney Poitier became the first Black man to win an acting Oscar, and 51 years before another Black woman, Whoopi Goldberg, won in the same category.