She has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame , was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame in , and in became the first black Oscar winner honored with a U. In addition to acting, McDaniel recorded 16 blues sides between and and was a radio performer and television personality; she was the first black woman to sing on radio in the United States.
McDaniel experienced racism and racial segregation throughout her career, and as a result, she was unable to attend the premiere of Gone with the Wind in Atlanta because it was held in a whites-only theater. At the Oscars ceremony in Los Angeles, she sat at a segregated table at the side of the room. In , McDaniel died of breast cancer. Her final wish, to be buried in Hollywood Cemetery , was denied because at the time of her death, the graveyard was reserved for whites only.
McDaniel, the youngest of 13 children, was born in to formerly enslaved parents in Wichita, Kansas. In , the family moved to Fort Collins, Colorado [ 13 ] where McDaniel lived with her parents and three siblings in a house at Cherry Street. She attended Franklin School. McDaniel's father Henry preached and sang at church. The family did not live a long time in the city. In , she won a gold medal for reciting "Convict Joe", a Pre-Prohibition-era poem about the evils of alcohol, for a Women's Christian Temperance Union contest.
Her sister Etta McDaniel was also an actress. McDaniel was a songwriter and performer. She honed her songwriting skills while working with her brother Otis McDaniel's carnival company, a minstrel show. After the stock market crashed in , McDaniel could only find work as a washroom attendant [ 26 ] at Sam Pick's Club Madrid near Milwaukee.
Judge Priest , directed by John Ford and starring Will Rogers , was the first film in which she played a major role. She had a leading part in the film and demonstrated her singing talent, including a duet with Rogers. Rogers helped guide McDaniel's performance.
