Black History Month Paper- Hattie McDaniel half page essay

Out of the twelve subjects I researched for Kansas Black History, I chose actress Hattie McDaniel. She was born to slaves in Wichita, KS on June 10, 1895. Out of thirteen children, she was the youngest. Her father fought in the civil war and her mother was a singer of religious music. Hattie moved to Denver, Colorado, where she graduated from Denver East High school. In 1920 she received her next big break and toured with Professor George Morrison’s Melody Hounds. By 1925 she entered radio and sung on station KOA in Denver and recorded songs for Okeh and Paramount 78 record labels during the mid-late twenties. The imagery I used for my second draft poster was a sepia-toned photo, a color-tinted photo in her role as “Mammy” from Gone With the Wind and found an image of her song, “I thought I’d Do It” on Okeh and incorporated this imagery into my second poster design. I also felt that her musical talent went unrecognized nowadays and wanted to reflect on it as well. Her musical career displayed many different facets of this fascinating actress and songwriter, of which, gave me a better understanding about her career in early radio when it was still in its infancy period throughout the Twenties. Not only was she dynamic as a radio personality, but also very popular. Despite this, however, she still worked as a maid because her wages were low. Later in her career she was involved with radio and TV and became the first African-American to star in her own comedy series, Beulah.