African Americans and Oscar®

By Reference Librarian Anne R.
Viola Davis
At the Screen Actors Guild Award ceremony last month, Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer, who both appeared in the movie adaptation of Kathryn Stockett’s popular novel The Help, made history together. They were the first pair of African American actresses to win both the Best Actress and the Best Supporting Actress awards.
Hattie McDaniel was the first African American to win an Oscar®When the Academy Awards event airs on Sunday, Feb. 26, this milestone may be repeated. That’s an encouraging sign, since the history of African Americans and the Oscar® is a troubling one. In 1940, Hattie McDaniel was the first African American to win, taking home the Best Supporting Actress award for her performance as housemaid Mammy in Gone with the Wind. It would be an astonishing 23 years before another African American actor took home an Oscar®.

By Frank S. Washington
Making bones speak: Students analyze a Nubian skeleton from the Middle Ages. More than 400 ancient skeletons from Africa are on loan to MSU from the British Museum. Photo by G.L. Kohuth
Dear Tamara:
By Robert Pagliarini,
Tom and Lupe Izzo (left) and Magic Johnson (right) at an event in East Lansing, MI, where Magic played basketball at Michigan State University. TNCP photo
By Robert C. Robinson III, MD