
“I sincerely hope I shall always be a credit to my race and to the motion picture industry,” McDaniel said as she accepted the 1st Academy Award given to an African-American for her performance in the film Gone with the Wind. “Analysis” of a continuity error in a clip from a film of the 1939 Oscars ceremony suggests that the “documentary” footage and McDaniel’s speech were re-staged.

“I sincerely hope I shall always be a credit to my race and to the motion picture industry,” McDaniel said as she accepted the 1st Academy Award given to an African-American for her performance in the film Gone with the Wind. “Analysis” of a continuity error in a clip from a film of the 1939 Oscars ceremony suggests that the “documentary” footage and McDaniel’s speech were re-staged.
2004-01-01
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6.4An acclaimed stage performer, Dorothy still struggled with the challenge of her color, in a time that wouldn't let some stars in by the front door. Yet against the odds she beat out many more famous rivals for the role of "Carmen Jones", becoming the first black woman ever nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award. Marriages and affairs would break her heart, but her heart was strong. Seductive and easily seduced, she was born to be a star - with all the glory and all the pain of being loved, abused, cheated, glorified, undermined and undefeated. Here was a woman who wouldn't wait in the wings. Halle Berry stars as Dorothy Dandrige.
6.8The rise of Aretha Franklin’s career from a child singing in her father’s church’s choir to her international superstardom.
6.9The story of the gold-plated statuette that became the film industry's most coveted prize, AND THE OSCAR GOES TO... traces the history of the Academy itself, which began in 1927 when Louis B. Mayer, then head of MGM, led other prominent members of the industry in forming this professional honorary organization. Two years later the Academy began bestowing awards, which were nicknamed "Oscar," and quickly came to represent the pinnacle of cinematic achievement.
6.5Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz face a crisis that could end their careers and another that could end their marriage.
7.6In the 1960s, two entrepreneurs hatch an ingenious business plan to fight for housing integration—and equal access to the American Dream.
7.4In 1966, Texas Western coach Don Haskins led the first all-black starting line-up for a college basketball team to the NCAA national championship.
7.4Richard Jewell thinks quick, works fast, and saves hundreds, perhaps thousands, of lives after a domestic terrorist plants several pipe bombs and they explode during a concert, only to be falsely suspected of the crime by sloppy FBI work and sensational media coverage.
7.1Filmmaker Lawrence Shapiro discusses voice-over acting with the talented people behind the characters.
7.6Passionate and innovative teacher Ron Clark leaves his small hometown to teach in one of Harlem's toughest schools. But to break through to the students, he must use unconventional methods, including his ground-breaking classroom rules, to help them reach their potential. Based on a true story.
7.2The true story of a brilliant but politically radical debate team coach who uses the power of words to transform a group of underdog African-American college students into a historical powerhouse that took on the Harvard elite.
7.7What was supposed to be a peaceful protest turned into a violent clash with the police. What followed was one of the most notorious trials in history.
6.6Chronicles the powerful friendship between two young Black teenagers navigating the harrowing trials of reform school together in Florida.
7.3Young lawyer Ruth Bader Ginsburg teams with her husband Marty to bring a groundbreaking case before the U.S. Court of Appeals and overturn a century of sex discrimination.
8.1After seven months have passed without a culprit in her daughter's murder case, Mildred Hayes makes a bold move, painting three signs leading into her town with a controversial message directed at Bill Willoughby, the town's revered chief of police. When his second-in-command Officer Jason Dixon, an immature mother's boy with a penchant for violence, gets involved, the battle between Mildred and Ebbing's law enforcement is only exacerbated.
6.6When Colin Warner was wrongfully convicted of murder, his best friend Carl King devoted his life to proving his innocence.
6.7Lyndon B. Johnson's amazing 11-month journey from taking office after JFK's assassination, through the fight to pass the 1964 Civil Rights Act and his own presidential campaign, culminating on the night LBJ is actually elected to the office – no longer the 'accidental President.'
7.9A dramatization of the relationship between heart surgery pioneers Alfred Blalock and Vivien Thomas.
6.4In 1939, boy-wonder Orson Welles leaves New York, where he has succeeded in radio and theater, and, hired by RKO Pictures, moves to Hollywood with the purpose of making his first film.