Black History Month and A RAISIN IN THE SUN

February is Black History Month. Early this morning on Twitter, I saw a posting that included a photo of GONE WITH THE WIND star, Hattie McDaniel. Above it: "In honor of Black History Month, I'll be recognizing many of the African-Americans who have won Oscars." McDaniel was the first black performer ever nominated for an Oscar and the first to win. She played "Mammy" in GONE WITH THE WIND. The Twitter post was from @ EveryOscarEver. I appreciate the attention. However, if you've read my posts, you know that I feel that kind of attention would be stronger if it included the other side of the story, a reason why we need Black History Month. We need it because our history is often unnoticed, ignored or discarded. Yes, Hattie McDaniel was the first African American to win an Oscar. She was also the first in a long, frustratingly long line of talented black women who were nominated for Oscars, mostly in the Best Supporting Actress category, and never got a second nomination because Hollywood wasn't/isn't a kingdom of equal opportunities. Many of those black actresses turned to TV for steady employment. Among the one-time only black female Oscar nominees: Hattie McDaniel, Ethel Waters, Dorothy Dandridge, Juanita Moore, Cicely Tyson, Diana Ross, Diahann Carroll, Angela Bassett, Alfre Woodard, Taraji P. Henson, Gabourey Sidibe, Beah Richards, Jennifer Hudson, Lupita Nyong'o and -- late in her career -- Ruby Dee, star of A RAISIN IN THE SUN.

A RAISIN IN THE SUN was written by the trailblazing African American playwright, Lorraine Hansberry. Ruby Dee was a member of the original Broadway cast, the cast that repeated its performances in the 1961 film adaptation. The movie was a Columbia Pictures production. 1961's A RAISIN IN THE SUN has one of the Oscar-nomination worthy performances Dee delivered in her film career. Ruby Dee's one nomination, in the Best Supporting Actress category, was for 2007's AMERICAN GANGSTER. Here she is with Sidney Poitier, Diana Sands and Claudia McNeil in 1961's A RAISIN IN THE SUN.

Right now, Scarlett Johansson is going into Oscars Sunday with two nominations. She's up in the Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress categories. Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence has four Oscar nominations to her credit and she's only 29. But, then, she didn't have to turn to TV for steady work after her first Oscar nomination.

If @ EveryOscarEver wanted to salute African American women nominated for Best Actress, one for each day of Black History Month, he/she wouldn't have enough for a whole two weeks. As of now, only one black woman has won the Oscar for Best Actress -- Halle Berry for the 2001 drama, MONSTER'S BALL.

The Oscars ceremony has been pushed way up this year. The show next weekend, Sunday Feb. 9th. We have 20 actors nominated for Oscars -- Best Actor and Actress, Best Supporting Actor and Actress. There's only one black nominee -- British actress/singer Cythia Erivo for HARRIET. Did Academy members just not see Eddie Murphy, Da'Vine Joy Randolph and Wesley Snipes gives us comedy excellence in DOLEMITE IS MY NAME? Did they not see the dual dramatic role Lupita Nyong'o rocked in US? And I guess they just never played their screeners of HUSTLERS to see Jennifer Lopez play her financially-savvy stripper role as intelligently as Leonardo DiCaprio played his Wall Street character in 2013's WOLF OF WALL STREET. The fact that Alfre Woodard is not in the Best Actress category for her prison warden role in CLEMENCY makes me want to weep.

Here's some Hollywood history: The first black performer nominated for an Oscar was Hattie McDaniel for 1939's GONE WITH THE WIND. The second was Ethel Waters for playing a retired, uneducated domestic worker down South in the 1949 race drama, PINKY, directed by Elia Kazan.

In between those years, the next performer to receive an Oscar nomination for playing a dark-skinned black character was a white actress from England. I kid you not. Did you ever see William Wyler's 1939 classic, WUTHERING HEIGHTS? Remember the sad housekeeper in the first 20 minutes who sits and tells the story of Cathy and Heathcliff that we see in flashback? That actress was Flora Robson. Robson also played Queen Elizabeth I in THE SEA HAWK opposite Errol Flynn. She was about as white as Frosty the Snowman. But Warner Bros. put her in a Hollywood make-up chair, slapped some dark cosmetics on her, and she played the strict Haitian maid to Ingrid Bergman's character in the 1945 costume drama SARATOGA TRUNK.

If the role was good enough to get a woman an Oscar nomination, why didn't Hollywood let a black actress like Theresa Harris (BABY FACE, JEZEBEL, BUCK BENNY RIDES AGAIN) or Dorothy Dandridge (SUN VALLEY SERENADE, LADY FROM LOUISIANA, SUNDOWN) play the black maid? The first black male actor to receive an Oscar was James Baskett. It was an Honorary Oscar for his performance as Uncle Remus in Disney's SONG OF THE SOUTH. It's a live action/animation musical set on a plantation. Baskett sang "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah" which won the Oscar for Best Song of 1946 and became Disney's theme song for decades until it was replaced by "Let It Go" from FROZEN. Baskett sang another number in SONG OF THE SOUTH that was covered by pop vocalists. It's the jaunty "Sooner or Later" (You're Gonna Be Comin' Around). He sang it in a duet with Hattie McDaniel, seen in the movie as the plantation cook and friend to Uncle Remus. In the list of the top grossing U.S. films of 1946, Disney's SONG OF THE SOUTH was number one.

Now for something I'm proud to point out during Black History Month. This is something I never, ever hear mentioned by the white hosts on movie channels who highlight the film accomplishments of black talent during Black History Month. I never, ever hear it mentioned by hosts in June when they honor LGBTQ images and accomplishments in film during Gay Pride Month. We need to recognize and praise this about the late, great Lorraine Hansberry.

The Chicago native saw her play produced on Broadway in 1959.  In 1961, the Columbia Pictures film adaptation of her A RAISIN IN THE SUN opened. In the opening credits, one card onscreen reads "Based On The Play By Lorraine Hansberry."  A few seconds later, we see this:

It's 1961. The Civil Rights Movement is in action. Black folks are demanding the right to vote, the right to a decent education, the right to marry outside their race. Interracial marriage was still illegal in several American states. Lorraine Hansberry was young, gifted, black -- and a lesbian. She was openly gay. How many black people by that time -- male or female, straight or gay -- had ever seen their name on a movie screen alone under the words "Screen Play By" in huge letters -- and in a film released by a major Hollywood studio? THAT was a major accomplishment.

Hansberry succumbed to cancer in 1965 at age 34. Her next play produced on Broadway was 1964's THE SIGN IN SIDNEY BRUSTEIN'S WINDOW.

The remarkable Rita Moreno won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her powerhouse performance in 1961's WEST SIDE STORY. Rita Moreno has completed filming her role in the Steven Spielberg version of WEST SIDE STORY which premieres in December of this year. Moreno is one of those Black/Latina actresses who turned to TV and stage after her one and only Oscar nomination. Hollywood had no other opportunities for her for seven years after WEST SIDE STORY. I hope Rita Moreno's role and performance in Spielberg's version is so strong that it brings her a historic second Oscar nomination for WEST SIDE STORY.  I would love to interview her and, among other things, talk to her about Lorraine Hansberry. She was in the cast of the late playwright's 1964 Broadway production.

Happy Black History Month.