February 29 · This Day in America
On a leap-year night at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, the Academy calls Hattie McDaniel's name for Best Supporting Actress in Gone with the Wind. She is the first African American ever to win an Oscar. She has to be let into the room as a favor; the hotel has a no-Black policy, and her studio has seated her at a small table against the far wall, away from her own film's cast. She rises anyway, gardenias in her hair, and crosses the floor. Her voice is steady. This is one of the happiest moments of her life, she says; she hopes always to be a credit to her race and to her industry; her heart is too full to say more. It would be fifty years before another Black woman won that award. She knew the door she was walking through was barely open. She walked through it with her head up, so others could find it later.
Source: www.history.com
Also on this day · 1692
On a rainy leap day, four men ride from Salem Village to Salem Town and swear out the first formal complaints of the witch hysteria: against Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and an enslaved woman named Tituba. The arrests come the next morning. Nineteen people would hang before the madness broke. America's first lesson, told in fear, in what happens when accusation needs no proof — a lesson the republic would have to keep relearning.
Source: salemwitchmuseum.com
“I sincerely hope I shall always be a credit to my race and to the motion picture industry. My heart is too full to tell you just how I feel.”Hattie McDaniel, Academy Awards acceptance, 1940