FORT COLLINS, Colo. – In 1939, the first Black person to win an Oscar, Hattie McDaniel, was banned from the premier of the film that helped her earn the coveted award because of the color of her skin.
Despite facing decades of discrimination, McDaniel would continue to make history — and part of her story begins in Fort Collins, Colorado.
“I think Colorado was actually, I would call it, the foundation of her true performing career which prepared her for Hollywood,” McDaniel’s great-grandnephew Kevin Goff, said.
Goff and his wife recently moved to Fort Collins from California to learn more about his aunt.
“She’s from Wichita, Kan. And from there, they migrated to Fort Collins around 1900. And they did that because the father wants to find, you know, more work and a better opportunity for his family,” Goff said.
Standing in front of McDaniel’s childhood home in Fort Collins, Goff described McDaniel’s childhood.
“They were here for maybe a year or so… she was probably 5 or 6 years old,” Goff said. “This area actually, there were a lot of African American families here. And she had a childhood friend, Ruth, and she was white. And they were best friends. And they (Ruth’s family) have a general store around the corner that still exists today.