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Howard University Still Can't Find Hattie McDaniel's Oscar

By Ericka Blount Danois on May 26th 2010 8:50PM
Filed under: News

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As Hattie McDaniel's impending biopic, starring Mo'Nique, becomes a reality, the question has resurfaced: What ever happened to McDaniel's Oscar that was supposedly lost and/or stolen at Howard University? And how could the mecca of black institutions lose the Oscar of the first black woman EVER to win an Oscar? Just how does that happen?What's worse is Howard claims -- depending on which way the wind blows -- that it never had the Oscar to begin with, someone stole it, it may be at a professor's house or it may be packed in an unmarked box somewhere at the university. (There were a pair of Bill "Bojangles" Robinson's bronzed tap-dancing shoes in the same display case that held McDaniel's Oscar. Then, the shoes vanished. Everyone thought they had been stolen, but they found them in a "box somewhere.") Huh?

Over the course of her career, McDaniel appeared in more than 300 films, although she received screen credits for only about 80. When she died of breast cancer in 1952, she bequeathed her Oscar to Howard's drama department, which had honored the pioneering actress with a luncheon after her win. (McDaniel had no academic affiliation with the school.)

Howard University's theater department has spent years trying to figure out what happened to the Oscar, which disappeared decades ago.

Several theories have abounded: Some say students stole the plaque in the '60s (they distributed plaques, not statues then) in protest of the subservient roles she played. Others say a thief stole the statue, which is worth $550,000. Others believe it's resting in an unmarked box somewhere at the large university. Howard archivists say there's no official record that the university ever received the award, but students say they recall seeing it in the school's Fine Arts building.

After winning the 2010 Oscar for best supporting actress, Mo'Nique noted that she was wearing a royal blue dress, along with a gardenia in her hair, because that's what Hattie McDaniel wore 70 years earlier, when she became the first African American to receive an Academy Award.

Mo'Nique said, "I want to thank Miss Hattie McDaniel for enduring all that she had to so that I would not have to."

Some members of Howard University have petitioned the Academy to send a replacement, but the Academy, according to a long-standing policy, does not offer replacements.

Why would they replace something that they can't even track? Just asking? Not to mention they don't make the plaques that used to be given out in the 1940s. Did I mention it's worth $550,000?

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