The Queen of Sugar Hill

Hollywood's glamour years were not good ones for Black actors. Jim Crow was alive and well even there. You can learn lot about this dark side of Tinseltown in ReShonda Tate's The Queen of Sugar Hill, a novel based on the life of Hattie McDaniel.
When Hattie won an Oscar in 1940 for her portrayal of Mammy in Gone With The Wind (the first Black woman even nominated for an Oscar) she was optimistic. She'd seen the award be a real career boost for white performers. And she wanted a lot more than personal fame and fortune. She wanted justice for herself and her colleagues. Roles for Blacks were limited to stereotypes. Hattie was always portraying maids. And working conditions epitomized separate and far from equal.
However Hattie, who had been banned from the Atlanta premier of Gone With The Wind, found herself mired in controversy, criticized harshly by both whites and Blacks. Whites saw her as uppity, needing to be put in her place. Many Blacks saw awe as a race traitor. The following quote appeared in the Pittsburgh Courier: "Negroes in Hollywood need to reject any further roles in such films and put an end to these economic slaves like Hattie McDaniel whose participation in the film amounts to racial suicide."
NAACP president, Walter White, was an especially harsh and persistent critic.
It was a plight Hattie would be caught up in the rest of her life. Her courage and persistence in the face of persecution greatly impressed Tate.
"I felt an undeniable connection to it because of her perseverance in spite of the criticism from Blacks, who hated her 'demeaning' Mammy character, in spite of hatred from whites, who felt Mammy was too sassy…in spite of four failed marriages and never feeling seen. In spite of everything she forged ahead. This endeared her to me and made me determined to tell her story."
It's a story well worth telling and reading.
On a purrrsonal note, at UMaine we just finished the last week of Spring semester classes. There were lots of fun crafts. I got to paint flowers on a cloth bag, decorate the covers of some blank books with beautiful flower stickers, paint an already drawn pirate ship on a black canvas, and make an adorable little zen garden. There were plenty of calorie rich snacks to fuel people for finals week.
A great big shout out goes out to students at UMaine and elsewhere getting ready for finals.
Jules Hathaway