Film academy gifts a replacement of Hattie McDaniel’s historic Oscar to Howard University

By JAKE COYLE
AP Film Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Hattie McDaniel’s best supporting actress Oscar in 1939 for “Gone With the Wind” is one of the most important moments in Academy Award history. McDaniel was the first African American to win an Oscar, and it would be half a century before another Black woman again won an acting award. But the whereabouts of her award, itself, has long been unknown. Now, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has created a replacement of McDaniel’s legendary Academy Award that it’s gifting to Howard University. The film academy announced Tuesday that the replacement award will reside at the university’s Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts.