All of the film’s black actors, including McDaniel, were barred from attending the film’s premiere in 1939, which was aired at the Loew’s Grand Theatre on Peachtree Street in Atlanta, Georgia. Clark Gable refused to go if Hattie was not allowed to go. She convinced him to go without her. While McDaniel was eventually let into the hotel, she had to be escorted and was forced to sit in the back of the room, separated from her white co-stars.
McDaniel did not complain about her situation and when the NAACP criticized her for playing stereotypical characters on the big screen, she had this to say:
“I have never apologized for the roles I play. Several times I have persuaded the directors to omit dialect from modern pictures. They readily agreed to the suggestion. I have been told that I have kept alive the stereotype of the Negro servant in the minds of theatre-goers. I believe my critics think the public more naïve than it actually is. As I pointed out to Fredi Washington, ‘Arthur Treacher is indelibly stamped as a Hollywood butler, but I am sure no one would go to his home and expect him to meet them at the door with a napkin across his arm.'””
The n-word is used frequently in Margaret Mitchell’s book of the same name, however, it is never used in the movie, in part, due to McDaniel pushing back and refusing to say it. “I’d rather play a maid than be one,” she said.
As for winning the Oscar, McDaniel had this to say:
“”My own people were especially happy. They felt that in honoring me, Hollywood had honored the entire race. That was the way I wanted it. This was too big a moment for my personal back-slapping. I wanted this occasion to prove an inspiration to Negro youth for many years to come.”””
